Prosecution asks for 5 year sentence for notorious extradited cab driver murderer

Per request, Moshe Ben-Ivgi would have to serve sentence despite limitations on prison time as part of extradition from Argentina.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Moshe Ben-Ivgi 370 (photo credit: Police Spokesman's Office)
Moshe Ben-Ivgi 370
(photo credit: Police Spokesman's Office)
The prosecution on Thursday requested the Tel Aviv District Court order fugitive Moshe Ben-Ivgi to serve out a five-year prison sentence despite limitations on his prison time as part of his extradition from Argentina.
Ben-Ivgi was extradited to Israel from Argentina on Wednesday evening, almost a decade after he fled there during a prison furlough.
Ben-Ivgi, 34, landed at Ben- Gurion Airport escorted by two Argentinean police officers some nine years after police began the process of extraditing him to Israel from South America.
He was convicted – along with Arbel Aloni – in 1994 for the “thrill kill” murder of cab driver Derek Roth, who they gunned down with a revolver shortly after entering his cab in Herzliya on January 9, 1994, when they were both just 14.
Both teens were sentenced to 16 years in prison, and were then rearrested in 1998, after they committed a violent armed robbery of a Herzliya kiosk during a prison furlough.
The two were sentenced to an additional five years in prison in 2000.
Despite the objections of police and prison officials, Ben-Ivgi was given another furlough in May 2004, during which he fled Israel on a fake passport and made his way to South America.
Israel Police filed an international arrest warrant for Ben-Ivgi, and in November 2004 he was arrested by Argentine authorities.
Thus began a lengthy extradition process, during which Argentina refused to extradite him unless Israel agreed that upon his return he would be sentenced only for the armed robbery and not the murder, which took place when he was still a minor, or even some of the ancillary crimes connected with the armed robbery.
Israel was ultimately compelled to accept Argentina’s condition for extradition, which complicates how the state implements Ben-Ivgi’s serving of his prison sentence.
Since the 2000 court sentence included other ancillary crimes that were excluded from the extradition, and since Ben-Ivgi served around four years of prison following the 2000 court sentence, he could try to argue that he should be released sooner than five years.
The prosecution argued that since the essence of the 2000 conviction was the armed robbery charge, even if the five years was originally handed down in terms of including other charges, the purpose of the sentencing order would be most fulfilled by having Ben- Ivgi serve a full five-year term.
The prosecution also said that no time should be deducted from the five years for the years 2000-2004, as that time should be counted toward his earlier 1994 sentence, which, due to the Argentinean extradition conditions, cannot be imposed on Ben-Ivgi now.
However, Argentina did not request a specific calculation of how many years of prison Ben-Ivgi would serve for the armed robbery conviction, leaving the prosecution open to its current motion to make him serve a full five years for armed robbery, starting now.
Roth’s 1994 murder shocked Israel, not only because of the young age of the assailants but also due to the lack of a motive and the randomness of the crime.
Ben Hartman contributed to this report.