Israel Won’t Extradite U.S. Teen

JERUSALEM —  Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected U.S. government pleas and blocked the extradition of an American youth wanted in a grisly Maryland slaying.

The judges, voting 3 to 2, overturned a lower court’s decision that Samuel Sheinbein, 18, could be extradited to the United States to face charges in the 1997 killing and instead accepted his claim of Israeli citizenship.

Sheinbein, who had never lived in Israel before the killing, will stand trial here within a few weeks, his lawyer and prosecution attorneys said.

The case has strained U.S.-Israeli relations and prompted the U.S. Congress to threaten to freeze financial aid to Israel. It has also raised questions about the criteria for Israeli citizenship and angered many Israelis who fear that their country can be used as a haven for Jewish criminals.

The court ruling was greeted with calls for changes in the law that forbids extradition of Israeli citizens--calls that came even from the high court and Sheinbein’s own attorney.

The ruling is a victory for Sheinbein, who sat expressionless in court as the decision was read. The youth had fought his extradition since fleeing to Israel two days after the charred and dismembered body of Alfredo Tello Jr., 19, was found near Sheinbein’s home in suburban Maryland.

Sheinbein’s attorney, former Justice Minister David Libai, praised the court for resisting U.S. political pressure.

“This is a country in which the rule of law prevails,” Libai said in an interview. “You won’t find a marked difference between trying him in Maryland and here. Maybe public opinion is a little less against him here, that’s all.”

Israeli officials emphasized that Sheinbein by no means will go free, and they said they hope that the U.S. government will understand that.

“Of course it is much easier to have a trial where the offense is committed,” said Irit Kahn, head of the Justice Ministry’s international department. “But there is no question justice will be served. He is not going to walk away freely and happily.”

In Washington, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno expressed disappointment with the ruling and said the U.S. will examine whether further steps can be taken to appeal it.

“But at the same time, we’re going to be dedicated to doing everything we can to work with the local prosecutor and with Israeli authorities, if the case is tried there, to see that justice is done,” Reno said.

Kahn, who had argued for extradition, said the prosecution can ask for life imprisonment if Sheinbein is convicted, but the three-judge trial court will have the discretion to sentence him as it sees fit. Libai said the usual sentence for people convicted of murders committed when they were minors is 15 to 20 years, and rarely life.

U.S. investigators have already provided evidence to their Israeli counterparts in an effort to build a case, Kahn said.

Sheinbein was charged with murder in Maryland and will be indicted on the same charge here next week.

An alleged accomplice hanged himself in a Maryland jail last year.

In a sign of the political delicacy of the case, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also issued a statement Thursday, saying he expects that “an enlightened state of law” like the United States will accept the ruling of a supreme court “known as independent and apolitical.”

A Jerusalem District Court ruled in September that Sheinbein could be extradited to the United States because, although the youth claimed Israeli citizenship, he had maintained no real connection to the Jewish state. Sheinbein used his father’s status as the basis for his citizenship claim.

His father was born in what was then British-ruled Palestine and in 1950 left what had become Israel for the United States.

In overturning that ruling, the Supreme Court said that there can’t be “degrees” of citizenship and that Sheinbein could claim the status even though he had “no further affinity” with the country.

Israel’s “Law of Return” grants citizenship liberally to Jews and their children from anywhere in the world and is considered a pillar of the half-century-old state.

Yet the 1978 law that bans the extradition of Israeli citizens has created the potential for abuse by fugitives who can subvert the law to use Israel as a haven. Israel has signed international extradition treaties but finds them in conflict with the 1978 law, which was written because of fears of exposing Jews to the judicial systems of other nations.

The Sheinbein case has highlighted the potential for abuse and intensified debate over changing the law. An amendment is pending before parliament.