Israeli to be extradited to US over sale of military parts to Iran
Supreme Court rejects appeal by Eli Cohen, who is facing harsh jail sentence, fine for selling warplane components to Islamic Republic
Eli Cohen, right, and Avihai Weinstein are suspected of selling arms to Iran. (screen capture: Channel 2)
The Israeli Supreme Court on
Sunday rejected an appeal by an Israeli man against extradition to the
US, where he has been charged with selling arms — including spare parts
for fighter jets — to Iran.
Arye
Eliyahu “Eli” Cohen, 66, from Bnei Brak, was arrested at the request of
the US authorities at Ben Gurion Airport in May 2014, as he was trying
to flee the country.
Cohen had been indicted in a federal court in
Connecticut for illegally exporting spare parts for F-4 and F-14 combat
aircraft to Iran, illegally moving military equipment out of the US and
money laundering.
If convicted, Cohen could face up to 20 years
in prison and a $1 million fine for breaking laws prohibiting the sale
of arms to Iran.
The Supreme Court said in a statement Sunday
that Cohen should be rendered to US authorities “in order to stand trial
for the commission of federal offences of trading military spare parts
with Iran.”
“According to the charge sheet on which the
extradition request is based, during the years 2000-2004 Cohen exported
military spare parts from the United States to his place of residence in
Israel,” the Hebrew-language statement said.
A
US Navy F-14B Tomcat prepares to make an arrested landing on board the
aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) as the ship conducts
flight operations in the Persian Gulf on Nov. 24, 1997. (DoD/Lt. Bryan
Fetter, US Navy)
It said that he and three accomplices in the
United States shipped parts for Hawk missiles, fighter aircraft and
armored troop carriers from the US to Israel, using false declarations
as to the materials and their final destination. One of the accomplices
has previously been named as Cohen’s brother-in-law, Avihai Weinstein.
A transcript of Sunday’s court hearing said
that the charges alleged that between 2012-2013 Cohen “on two occasions
re-exported from Israel to Iran, via Greece, US-made military spare
parts used by fighter planes.”
The charges were filed in the Federal District
Court of Connecticut in 2013, and the United States made an extradition
request the following year.
The Jerusalem District Court granted the request but Cohen then appealed to the Supreme Court.
Israel’s Supreme Court justices on April 17, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“The act for which extradition is requested
constitutes a criminal offence under the laws of both” Israel and the
United States, the court said in Sunday’s ruling.
Cohen and Weinstein had previously tried to
send shipments to Iran via intermediary states such as the United
States, Germany, Thailand and Portugal, Israel’s Channel 2 reported in
2014, adding that Cohen had been investigated on such charges six times
in 12 years.