Here's an English-language translation of the Ma'ariv article, courtesy of Schmorgel (Borgel):
A beit din for conversions has refused to convert a messianist adherent of Chabad. Apparently, the rabbinical judges found no fault in his religious comportment, however, they rejected him on account of problems in his beliefs in fundamentals of Jewish faith, as he comes from a yeshiva in which it is believed that the Lubavitcher rebbe, who passed away in 1994, is still alive and is the King Messiah.
The person in question is a young man in his 20s who immigrated to Israel from Russia more than 10 years ago, and recently has been learning in a meshichist Chabad yeshiva.
According to the young man, his maternal grandmother was indeed Jewish, nevertheless, he went to learn in an institute for conversion to Judaism, completed his studies there successfully, and was brought before a beit din for conversion.
People involved in the conversion proceedings who were involved in his tutelage severely attacked the composition of the beit din's judges, and claimed that the matter has caused a severe crisis in the young man's class.
"This is simply a disaster. He is the first from the class who has made it to the level of converting. The other students said 'If they aren’t converting him, then who will they convert?' If they don’t agree to convert a real yeshiva bocher like him, what will Svetlana the shop clerk think, who sits alongside him in class?!' How can we say that we encourage conversions? Why did the dayyanim even bring up the subject of the Rebbe and Moshiach with him?" Another one [translator's comment—I guess one of the teachers] added…
"There are dayyanim who are bored and they want a topic for a speech or an essay—'The Status of the ger who came from Chabad' And all on the back of this poor guy."In the conversion institute they said, the beit din was composed of rabbinical judges from the Religious Zionist stream, and they conferred with four rabbis, two of whom who are among the most prominent the Religious Zionist movement, and those two told them that they should not convert the young man. The two others, who had a more haredi orientation, decreed that they should convert the young man.
"An atypical situation has arisen, where, in this instance, Religious Zionist dayyanim are more stringent than haredi dayyanim" one of the people from the Conversion Institute accused…and "now that they have conferred with their rabbis, they want to entangle Rabbi Amar with Chabad." This last comment refers to the fact that the case is supposed to come to the Chief Sepharadi Rabbi Shlomo Amar's desk in order for him to cast the deciding vote in the matter.