Israel rejects informal US request to extradite JCC bomb threat defendant

Although the US and Israel have strong extradition relations in most cases, the ministry, at least for now, has decided that this case is exceptional.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Updated: APRIL 24, 2017 16:13
Israel indicts US-Israeli teen over bomb threats (credit: REUTERS)
The Justice Ministry has initially rejected the US's informal request to extradite the JCC bomb threat defendant for trial in the US, the Jerusalem Post confirmed on Monday following a report by Channel 2 late Sunday night.
Although the US and Israel have strong extradition relations in most cases, the ministry, at least for now, has decided that this case is exceptional.
The reasons for the decision to initially reject the informal US extradition request, though a huge amount of the bomb threats occurred in the US, are numerous.
One of the most distinctive reasons is that the defendant allegedly committed crimes in a large number of countries including Australia, New Zealand and multiple countries in Europe.
From that perspective, the trial must be in one place and the defendant should not face trial in numerous places, though sometimes in the past defendants have faced trials in as many as two locations for different crimes.
Once the trial must occur in one place, the ministry views Israel as the most logical location since he committed all of the crimes while he was residing in Israel, even if the effects were all over the world.
Further, some of the crimes, including weapons possession and attacking a police officer are very specifically tied to Israel.
Additional considerations include that the defendant was a minor when he committed the crimes, and minors are usually not extradited, as well as that he has asserted various physical and mental problems which might also make extradition problematic.
Despite the initial decision to reject an informal extradition request, the US has still not submitted its full formal extradition request in writing and when this is received, Israel could conceivably reconsider its position and could decide to drop certain charges from its indictment.
Currently, the indictment includes all charges for actions in all countries, including the US, which would preclude any trial in the US on grounds of double jeopardy - that no person can be tried twice for the same crimes.
However, large Jewish organizations have already made public statements indicating Israel may face pressure on the issue from multiple fronts.