Two teens indicted for setting fire to a Japanika in Givatayim - Hanan Yaakov, 18, and Osher Bayach, 18, both from Rehovot - were revealed to have used ChatGPT to ask what the punishment for arson was before setting out to light the restaurant on fire.
According to the indictment, filed by attorney Tamar Teitelbaum of the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office, Yaakov and Bayach conspired during the night between July 11 and 12 to set fire to the Japanika restaurant in Givatayim. At 1:10 a.m., according to the allegations, the plan was already underway.
At around 2:25 a.m., the two left Rehovot and traveled together to Bnei Brak. On Zeitlin Street, they obtained an electric scooter and three plastic bottles, each containing 1.5 liters of flammable liquid, for a total of approximately 4.5 liters. According to the indictment, they also obtained gloves, a face mask, and a means of ignition.
From there, the two continued on the scooter from Bnei Brak toward Givatayim. They wore black hoodies and carried the three bottles of flammable liquid in a bag hanging from the scooter's handlebars. At around 4:17 a.m., they arrived near the restaurant.
According to the indictment, at that point, the two pulled their hoods over their heads. Yaakov put on gloves and a face mask in an attempt to conceal his identity and make identification more difficult. Bayach remained near the restaurant and waited on the scooter, while Yaakov approached the restaurant alone, carrying the bag and the means of ignition.
Employee was inside Japanika when it was set on fire
The restaurant was lit at the time, and an employee was inside. Yaakov, according to the indictment, began emptying the three bottles of flammable liquid one after another. He poured the liquid over the doors and windows facing the street, along the entranceway, onto planters and vegetation, and across the area in front of the restaurant.
Immediately afterward, the indictment alleges, Yaakov ignited the flammable liquid. Within moments, a fire broke out and spread to the vegetation, a table, a shade structure, the doors, windows, and restaurant entrance. Yaakov ran back toward Bayach, got onto the scooter, and the two fled the scene together. No one was injured in the incident, but the restaurant sustained damage estimated at approximately NIS 13,500. The two are charged with aggravated arson.
However, the section detailing how investigators allegedly linked the two young men to the arson appears in the prosecution's request to keep them in custody until the end of legal proceedings. Prosecutors say they have a series of pieces of evidence beginning with the pair's departure from Rehovot and continuing through their escape from the scene of the fire.
According to the prosecution, security cameras documented Yaakov and Bayach leaving Rehovot, arriving in Bnei Brak, traveling toward the restaurant, the arson itself, and then their escape route back to Bnei Brak.
The evidence also includes testimony from the drivers who transported the two from Rehovot to Bnei Brak and back. One of the drivers also provided investigators with photographs, and his testimony indicated that during the trip, the two defendants connected their mobile phones to the vehicle's music system.
Yaakov's phone also provided investigators with a series of findings, according to the prosecution. A forensic extraction of the device uncovered communications between him and Bayach before the incident, taxi bookings made before and after the arson, and the phone's location at the time of the incident, which prosecutors say corresponded with security camera footage. Investigators also found searches and navigation requests for an address in Bnei Brak and for the Japanika restaurant.
According to the detention request, analysis of Yaakov's communications showed that he was the one who booked the drivers who transported the two and that his phone's location data corresponded with the route documented on camera. Prosecutors further allege that when he arrived in Bnei Brak, he activated an "operational" SIM card in his phone.
Suspected arsonists used ChatGPT to inquire about punishment
An additional detail found on Bayach's phone became a central part of the evidence presented by the prosecution. According to the detention request, before the arson, he corresponded with ChatGPT and asked questions concerning the burning of a business and the potential punishment.
Among other things, according to the prosecution, Bayach asked: "What is the punishment for burning down a store," "What does extended prison sentences mean," and "What does the severity of the case mean." He later also asked: "If the place was closed, there was no one around."
After the arson, according to findings from the extraction of his phone, Bayach followed reports about the incident. Prosecutors say he viewed articles published about the restaurant fire and documented them.
A moment from the interrogation room has also now taken on additional significance for the prosecution. Yaakov generally denied the allegations against him and exercised his right to remain silent. However, during a break in one of his interrogations, while Bayach had still not been arrested and before investigators had confronted Yaakov with the evidence, he asked an investigator: "If you know everything, why isn't there another person under arrest with me?"
Prosecutors present the statement as part of the overall body of evidence against the two. Bayach also exercised his right to remain silent during questioning.
The evidence also includes Fire and Rescue Services documents detailing the means used to extinguish the fire and the damage caused to the restaurant, as well as photographs of the scene taken by forensic investigators.
Bayach flees arrest, charged with impersonation
Almost a month after the arson, on August 5, police arrived in Rehovot to arrest Bayach. However, according to the second charge against him, the arrest turned into a foot chase. Police encountered Bayach near 49 Yaakov Tuchman Street, identified themselves as officers, and asked for his name. Prosecutors allege that Bayach falsely told them his name was "Yuval Bitau." When the officers tried to establish his identity, he began running and fled from them.
Bayach ran through Yaakov Tuchman and Struma streets and between buildings as officers chased him and called on him to stop. According to the indictment, he ignored their calls and continued fleeing until police caught up with him and arrested him at the entrance to a building at 155 Yaakov Tuchman Street. As a result of that incident, Bayach is charged, in addition to arson, with impersonating another person and obstructing a police officer in the performance of his duties.
The prosecution is now asking the court to keep Yaakov and Bayach behind bars until the conclusion of legal proceedings against them. The detention request describes the alleged act as a "serious and premeditated violent offense" carried out jointly and argues that arson poses a grave danger to the public, because "it begins with a match, and who knows where it will end."
Prosecutors particularly emphasized that the restaurant was not empty when it was set on fire. "The respondents came specifically in the dead of night to Givatayim, equipped with approximately 4.5 liters of flammable liquid and dressed in clothing intended to conceal their identities. They set fire to a lit restaurant, where an employee was present at the time."