Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Case of Meir Asur

Case of the Meir Asur
(AKA: Rapist From the South)
 
Ramat Hovav, Israel
Beersheva, Israel
This page is under construction



A female soldier was raped and attempted to murder her by a man near Ramat Hovav.

Meir Asur was convicted in 1996 for a series of rapes and sexual assaults in the early 1990s. His victims were mostly young women hitchhikers traveling in the south of the country, At least on three occasions, Asur offered the women a lift, and then raped them at gunpoint. 

If you have any more information about this case, please forward it to The Awareness Center.
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Table of Contents:
 
1985
  1. A female soldierwas raped and attempted to murder her by a man near Ramat Hovav

1995
  1.  Beersheba Man Indicted for Series of Rapes at Gunpoint (03/07/1994)

1997
  1. Furor erupts over hiding rapist's identity (10/27/1997)
  2. Controversial dentist suspended for a year (12/04/1997)
     
2001
  1. Serial rapist should not have gotten furlough (12/04/1997)



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Beersheba Man Indicted for Series of Rapes at Gunpoint  
By Marcus Raine
Jerusalem Post - March 7, 1994 


A 24-YEAR-OLD alleged rapist who drove his victims home after attacking them was indicted in Tel Aviv District Court yesterday for a series of rapes in the south. 

Meir Asur, of Beersheba, is accused of three counts of aggravated rape, one count of attempted rape, burglary and four counts of illegally possessing a weapon. 

According to the indictment, Asur, who worked at a gas station, took advantage of the sales manager's absence and broke into the man's home, stealing a pistol, $500 and an IDF officer's reserve duty card. 

Last December, Asur allegedly picked up a 23-year-old hitchhiker while she was waiting for a bus in the Mishmar Hanegev area, but instead of taking her to her destination, drove off the main road into some fields and raped her at gunpoint, then drove her home. 

On February 2, Asur allegedly picked up a 20-year-old woman soldier and promised to take her part of the way to Kibbutz Hulda. When he drove off the main road towards the Hulda forest, the soldier thought he was taking a short cut. He stopped the car, telling her he was going to relieve himself, but when he returned he held a gun to her head and raped her. Afterwards, he took her to a bus station and fled. 

His third victim, also a hitchhiker, allegedly fell prey to Asur around two weeks later. He raped her twice, threatening to kill her if she did not comply, before driving her home. 

A few days later he allegedly picked up a female soldier waiting for a ride, but this time the woman managed to escape after a struggle in which Asur fired one shot.
Asur was identified by all his victims in a police line-up.
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Furor erupts over hiding rapist's identity
By Michal Yudelman
Jerusalem Post - October 27, 1997

A public outcry arose yesterday, following a report in Ha'aretz that Bnei Brak dentist Amos Buchnik claims to know the identity of a notorious rapist, but will only reveal it if an investigation of Rabbi Eliezer Abuhatzeira is dropped. 

Former internal security minister Moshe Shahal and MK Yael Dayan called on the police to immediately haul Buchnik in for questioning about the rape and attempted murder of a young female soldier, which sent shock waves throughout the country 12 years ago. 

On August 16, 1985 the soldier hitched a lift with a man near Ramat Hovav. The driver attacked her, tore off her clothes, and raped her. He then shot her in the head and threw her naked from the car, leaving her for dead. But she managed to crawl for some 20 hours in the desert until she was found by three Beduin youths, who called for help. The rapist, dubbed "the rapist from the South," was never caught. The soldier remained in a coma for nearly two months, after which the only identifying particular she could recall about the attack was that the man drove a Subaru. 

Ha'aretz's Yossi Bar-Moha reported yesterday that Buchnik offered to tell him who the rapist is, if it stopped publishing exposes about Abuhatzeira in Beersheba and the police stopped investigating him. Ha'aretz recently reported alleged tax evasions by Abuhatzeira. 

"It's been lying in my stomach for 12 years," Buchnik told Bar-Moha, saying he had not revealed the rapist's identity for "religious and humane reasons," and because Abuhatzeira told him this would amount to handing over a Jew to non-believers (din moser). 

The head of investigations for the southern police district, Dep.-Cmdr. Arye Lior, told Israel Radio the police could not pressure Buchnik, because he committed no offense. 

Lior's comment aroused Shahal's anger. "I was filled with fury to hear how the police was handling the affair," Shahal said, adding Buchnik should be questioned and that his withholding evidence is a crime. 

According to sources in the southern police district, Buchnik told Lior last Tuesday that one of his patients had told him he had raped and shot the woman soldier. The southern district passed on Buchnik's information to national police headquarters, which took charge of the investigation. 

The national police spokesman said yesterday the police would not bargain with Buchnik, who was not available for comment. 

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Controversial dentist suspended for a year
By Judy Siegel
Jerusalem Post - December 4, 2007

The license to practice dentistry of Dr. Amos Buchnik, the Bnei Brak man who claimed he has hidden for over a decade the identity of a soldier's rapist, has been suspended for a year due to his illegal advertising. It was the most serious punishment the Health Ministry ever meted out against a dentist breaking rules prohibiting him from advertising. 

The ministry committee that investigated the case actually recommended a five-year suspension, but Health Minister Yehoshua Matza decided on one year. 

According to the ministry, he made a deal with his brother - the owner of an insurance company - to refer patients to his dental practice, which is illegal. He also advertised his clinics in the media. 

Buchnik did not cooperate with the disciplinary committee that investigated the case. Until now, a year's suspension has been rarely handed down and only to negligent dentists involved in the death of a patient. 

Buchnik made headlines in October when he claimed to know who had raped a soldier in the South in August 1985. The soldier hitched a lift with a man near Ramat Hovav; the driver tore off her clothes, attacked and raped her, shooting her in the head and leaving her for dead. 

But she managed to crawl for nearly 20 hours in the desert until she was found by Beduin youths, who called for help. 

The "rapist from the South" was never found. Buchnik, a follower of Beersheba "miracle worker" Rabbi Eliezer Abuhatzeira, said he would disclose the rapist's identity if charges of alleged tax evasions against the rabbi were dropped. Police who investigated Buchnik concluded he knew nothing about the rape case. 

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Serial rapist should not have gotten furlough
By Etgar Lefkovitz
Jerusalem Post - October 21, 2001

Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau said yesterday he is astonished the public was never notified that a serial rapist who failed to return to prison from a furlough three months ago is still at large. 

Meir Asur, who was convicted of three rape cases in the early 1990s and sentenced to 21 years in jail, disappeared August 4 after having been granted a 24-hour furlough a day earlier from Ma'asiyahu Prison. 

Police sources said the Prisons Service never informed security officials of the convict's disappearance. 

The sources say police were only alerted to the case by a report in yesterday's Ha'aretz, which broke the story. 

Prisons Service spokeswoman Orit Messer-Harel insisted yesterday police were informed of the matter in three separate telegrams sent August 5 to police offices in Beersheba, Ramle, and the Negev region. 

Landau, who himself was not informed of the case, said yesterday the prisoner, who is deemed extremely dangerous, should never have been let out of prison. 

Asur, who was called "the rapist from the South," was convicted in 1996 for a series of rapes and sexual assaults in the early 1990s. His victims were mostly young women hitchhikers traveling in the south of the country, At least on three occasions, Asur offered the women a lift, and then raped them at gunpoint. 

Yesterday, a joint police and Prisons Service commission of inquiry was set up to look into the incident.

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