Thirteen men file not guilty pleas over role in Brooklyn synagogue incident

Thirteen Hasidic Jewish people said they did not do the things they are accused of in a fight over a secret tunnel at a synagogue in Brooklyn.

The people were accused of committing crimes, many of whom are students from Israel, went to court in Brooklyn on Wednesday. They are charged with being careless and putting people in danger, damaging property, and not cooperating with the government. They were given a special order that stops them from digging or changing the building. They also can’t talk to a local rabbi.

Prosecutors say that the people accused of the crime were between 19 and 26 years old, and were involved in an incident in January. 8 people fighting in the basement of a building where a group of Orthodox Jews worship. The argument started when people found a secret tunnel underground that connects four buildings in the Jewish complex.

Supporters of the tunnel said they were doing what Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the former Chabad leader and a very important Jewish leader, wanted. He had talked about making the worship area bigger before he died in 1994. Some people in the Chabad community think that Schneerson is still alive and that he is the chosen leader.

Chabad leaders wanted to close the tunnel because they thought it was damaged by vandals. But a group of young men didn’t want to leave and took the wooden covering off the synagogue. The protest got more intense when the police showed up, and there was a big fight that caused over US$1,500 in damage to property, as said in the court papers.

None of the men involved in the fight were accused of building the tunnel. The tunnel is described as a straight passage that is 60 feet long and 8 feet wide. Aside from the 13 people who said they didn’t do it on Wednesday, four more are likely to be charged when they come back from Israel in the next few weeks.

The Department of Buildings looked into the tunnel and found that it was filled with concrete. This tunnel was making the nearby buildings unstable, so people had to leave four buildings for safety.

A two-story building next to the synagogue has to be emptied because it doesn’t have enough fire barriers, said a person from the buildings department.

The defendants’ lawyer, Levi Huebner, did not answer a question on Thursday. He said his clients didn’t know enough and were trying to do good, but in the wrong way.

Rabbi Motti Seligson, who speaks for the Chabad-Lubavitch group, said in a text message: “We hope they realize their mistakes and make up for the harm they have done. “