Court to rule if hate crime suspect to be extradited to US

Suspect allegedly beat 2 African Americans in Brooklyn in 2008 and then escaped to Israel where he is also a citizen.

By RON FRIEDMAN
State Attorney’s Office petitioned the Jerusalem District Court on Sunday to determine whether Yitzchak Shuchat, 28, can be extradited to the United States. Shuchat is wanted in the New York on hate crime charges, having allegedly beaten two African-Americans in April 2008.
According to the extradition request, Shuchat attacked the men with a wooden club in the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, without provocation. The beating cause one of the men serious injuries and an arrest warrant was issued for Shuchat for second degree assault and a hate crime.
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The assault was defined as a hate crime because the parties did not know each other and because there was no other apparent motive. The extradition request also pointed to tense relations between Jews and African-Americans in the neighborhood as a reason to believe that race was a factor.
Shuchat escaped to Canada three weeks after the attack and then came to Israel three days later, according to the extradition request. Shuchat is an Israeli citizen, but before 2008 had rarely visited here.
In its petition, the state asked the court to agree to extradition since the appropriate conditions has been satisfied.
Shuchat was arrested on Sunday and will go before the court for the hearing on Monday


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