Attorney Halad Azbraga, who is representing Sheikh Yussuf Al-Baz, the imam of the Lod mosque who was arrested yesterday and charged with incitement to violence, told Reshet Bet this morning that Al-Baz is not a Hamas supporter.
"The police are not paying a great deal of attention to this video," Azbraga claimed, referring to a clip posted on Al-Baz's Facebook page, showing the brutal slaying of police officers along with a caption by Al-Baz asserting that "this is the way to deal with injustice."
"The police are focusing mainly on other things," he added. "Just like everyone does, my client saw something that he wanted to publicize, and so he posted it. Not everything has a motive," he claimed. "The video contains no specific message to the general public, no message calling for harm to be done to police officers."
Azbraga added that Al-Baz is "a religious figure, but the 'street' is influenced by many factors, not solely by one factor alone. [My client] does not support Hamas at all. The question shocks me. Indeed, the police are not associating him with support for terrorism or incitement to terrorist acts."