Prosecutors Give in, Autopsy Cancelled
(IsraelNN.com) Prosecutors have agreed to cancel a planned autopsy on the body of 26-year-old David Willinger, a yeshiva student from Kedumim who was killed in a car crash on Monday of this week. A court ruling allowing police to conduct an autopsy despite the family’s objections led to protests in Jerusalem on Thursday and clashes between members of the hareidi-religious community and local police.
ZAKA head Yehuda Meshi-Zahav slammed police for forcing Willinger’s family through a four-day legal battle. “Recently the police have been demanding an autopsy in every case of unnatural death, for no logical reason, even when there are other ways to discover the cause of death,” he said. “This is disrespectful to the dead.”
Police agreed to release the body for burial after Willinger’s cellular phone provider said it could provide evidence indicating Willinger was alive at the time of Monday’s collision, and after police in Jerusalem warned of violent hareidi-religious riots if the autopsy were to take place. The family is burying Willinger at this time.