{"id":615842,"date":"2026-09-14T14:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T14:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/615842\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T14:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T14:10:09","slug":"jerusalem-man-indicted-for-poisoning-supermarket-baby-food-on-jaffa-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/615842\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerusalem man indicted for poisoning supermarket baby food on Jaffa Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

State prosecutors indicted Yan Shemla, 41, on Monday on charges that he put crushed prescription drugs into baby-food jars and placed them on supermarket shelves in Jerusalem, poisoning five young children, including two babies under a year old.<\/p>\n

The indictment, filed in Jerusalem District Court, sets out the state\u2019s account of two incidents in May and June involving Prinok fruit and vegetable puree sold at two Zol Begadol branches on Jaffa Street. Prosecutors asked the court to keep Shemla in custody until the end of the proceedings against him.<\/p>\n

According to the indictment, Shemla<\/a> possessed prescription drugs from the benzodiazepine family, crushed the pills and placed them in jars that he then closed tightly to conceal the alleged tampering. He is accused of placing the jars on store shelves so that they appeared to be ordinary products available for sale.<\/p>\n

In the first incident, prosecutors say Shemla placed two contaminated jars<\/a> at the chain\u2019s Mahaneh Yehuda branch at 113 Jaffa Street before May 4. A mother bought one of the jars that day, and the following morning her 12-year-old daughter fed the puree to her sisters, aged about three and a half and eight months.<\/p>\n

Both girls collapsed shortly afterward, according to the charge sheet. They were taken by intensive-care ambulance to Hadassah-University Medical Center in Ein Kerem with impaired consciousness and extreme weakness and remained in hospital for several days. Tests cited by prosecutors found severe benzodiazepine poisoning.<\/p>\n

\"ZolZol Bagadol supermarket in Jerusalem on June 17, 2026, as law enforcement investigates multiple incidents of children being hospitalized after eating tainted fruit puree. (credit: MARK ISRAEL SELLEM\/THE JERUSALEM POST)<\/p>\n

A family friend bought the second jar from the same branch on May 6. It was later found to contain the drugs, the indictment says. No child is alleged to have eaten from that jar.<\/p>\n

Three children admitted to hospital in second poisoning incident<\/p>\n

In the second incident, Shemla allegedly placed four contaminated jars at the branch listed in the indictment as 212 Jaffa Street, near Jerusalem\u2019s<\/a> Central Bus Station, on May 25. Prosecutors say he also took a can of drink without paying, the basis for the theft charge.<\/p>\n

A mother bought one of the jars on June 10 and fed the puree the following day to her three-year-old son, her 11-month-old daughter and a neighbor\u2019s three-year-old daughter, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n

Within minutes, the children became confused and drowsy, lost their balance or muscle control, and struggled to respond. All three were taken to hospital and admitted with what the filing describes as severe benzodiazepine poisoning.<\/p>\n

Two more contaminated jars were later found among the products removed from the second store, prosecutors say.<\/p>\n

The Health Ministry<\/a> closed the two branches on June 17 over concerns for public health. It later said five contaminated jars had been identified – three supplied by customers and two found on store shelves – and that all showed signs of having been opened or tampered with.<\/p>\n

Security cameras showed Shemla placing contaminated jars<\/p>\n

Tests of products obtained from the importer found no contamination, and the ministry said it had found no evidence of a manufacturing defect. It did not order a nationwide recall of Prinok products. The branches were later barred from selling food and cosmetics until stronger quality-control measures were introduced.<\/p>\n

In its detention application, the prosecution said its evidence includes security-camera footage showing Shemla placing jars on shelves on May 25, location data, medical records indicating that he had access to the drugs, laboratory results and testimony from the children\u2019s parents. The state also says Shemla admitted the conduct alleged in the second count.<\/p>\n

Footage released publicly last week showed Shemla inside a supermarket around the time of the alleged acts.<\/p>\n

The prosecution said the alleged conduct was particularly grave because it targeted babies and toddlers through food intended for them. It said the poisonings could have caused far more serious harm and affected additional children.<\/p>\n

At an earlier detention hearing, Public Defender\u2019s Office attorney Zecharia Shenkolevsky said Shemla has a mental-health condition, was in a complex psychological state and was cooperating with investigators.<\/p>\n

Shemla faces five counts of dangerous use of poison and five counts of assaulting a minor or helpless person, as well as two attempted counts of each offense and one count of theft.<\/p>\n

Jerusalem District Court must now decide whether Shemla will remain detained through the trial. The prosecution said the alleged conduct shows that his release would pose a danger to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State prosecutors indicted Yan Shemla, 41, on Monday on charges that he put crushed prescription drugs into baby-food…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[104035,1089,737,85,129732,46,3794,43,102665],"class_list":["post-615842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-child-abuse","tag-children","tag-crime","tag-il","tag-indictment","tag-israel","tag-jerusalem","tag-news","tag-poison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}