I haven't seen this in print yet but apparently Avrohom Mondrowitz was found today by an Israeli court to be extraditable.
What this means is that – barring any appeals – Mondrowitz will be extradited to Brooklyn to stand trial.
It is expected that Mondrowitz will appeal.
UPDATE: The Ha'aretz report posted an hour or so after my report says…
…what I said, but with one important addition:
In Sunday's court decision, Judge Nava Ben Or ruled that since legal reasons prevented bringing Mondrowitz to justice, the statute of limitations on the crime with which he was charged stopped running the moment Mondrowitz arrived in Israel.
With the statute of limitations still valid, she ruled, he can be extradited to the U.S.
Mondrowitz's attorneys had claimed that the Israel statute of limitations had run out. Therefore, they argued, Mondrowitz should not be extradited.
Judge Ben Or rejected that line of reasoning, arguing that, in effect, if the extradition treaty between Israel and the US had been properly drafted or properly enforced (we'll need to wait for the actual transcript to see which), Mondrowitz would have been extradited more than 20 years ago.
This will be the legal point Mondrowitz will challenge on appeal.
In recounting a brief history of the case, Ha'aretz notes:
The U.S. Justice Department twice applied for his extradition, but legal hurdles prevented this until now. The first extradition request was denied because at the time, 22 years ago, sodomy was not an extraditable offense under the Israeli–American extradition treaty.
The treaty was amended in January 2007, making it possible to extradite anyone who has been charged with a crime that carries more than a one-year prison sentence.
The U.S. submitted a second extradition request in September 2007, and two months later Mondrowitz was arrested in Jerusalem.
So, what we know is this:
- The Brooklyn DA requested extradition in early February, 2007 – one year ago.
- The Bush Department of Justice under the leadership of Alberto Gonzales did not act on that request for 7 months – an unheard of delay.
- Requests for extradition usually contain a request to detain (jail) the suspect to prevent flght.
- If the US did make that request, Israel took two months to act on it – another unheard of delay.
- Yet, at this point it seems the Bush DOJ did not ask for detention.
- In turn, Israel did not move to arrest Mondrowitz until it was aware Ha'aretz was publishing an exposé. In other words, Israel waited until it had no choice.
What does all this mean?
I'm not sure. It might mean haredi leaders used political influence in both Israel and the US to block extradition.
More likely, it could mean the politicized Department of Justice saw the extradition of hasid closely connected to a major Israeli political figure, the Gerrer Rebbe, as something that might push large blocks of US haredi votes into the arms of Hillary Clinton, who was then the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Will we ever know?
Maybe not. Freedom of Information Requests are not honored for open cases. Mondrowitz wil in all likelihood be an open case for several more years. Unless a whistleblower leaks information, the 7 month delay, the lack of a request to detain, and other strange happenings with this case may be forever shrouded in mystery.