Madonna thanks Israel police for arresting suspected music thief

Tel Aviv - Madonna thanked the Israeli police for arresting a Tel Aviv resident, dubbed the "Grinch," who hacked into her computers, stole unfinished work and uploaded it onto the internet.

The suspect was named on Thursday as Adi Lederman, a former participant in a Star is Born, the Israeli version of American Idol, Police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld confirmed.

"The end of Privacy is not something any of us are ready for!" she tweeted on Thursday.



"I am profoundly grateful to the FBI, the Israeli Police investigators and anyone else who helped lead to the arrest of this hacker," she wrote on Facebook several hours earlier.

"Like any citizen, I have the right to privacy," she said, calling the songs theft an "invasion into my life" and a "deeply devastating and hurtful experience".



Israeli police said they arrested the 39-year-old on Wednesday following a covert international investigation.

Rosenfeld said the man was suspected of breaking into the computers of a number of international artists, stealing released and unreleased material and selling it on the web. He said there was suspicion that Madonna was one of his victims.

The investigation was conducted by the Israeli police's International Crimes and Investigations Unit in coordination with the FBI, he said. The suspect's name had been subject to a gag order until Thursday.

Madonna last month posted furious messages on social media after finding out that unfinished tracks from her upcoming album, Rebel Heart, had appeared on the internet.

The 56-year-old wrote in a December Instagram post that has since been taken down: "This is artistic rape!!"

"These are early leaked demos half of which won't even make it on my album the other half have changed and evolved.

"This is a form of terrorism. Wtf!!!! Why do people want to destroy artistic process??? Why steal? Why not give me the opportunity to finish and give you my very best?"

Madonna has since decided to release a few polished songs from Rebel Heart, available to those who pre-ordered her album on iTunes.