Supreme Court Justices Edmond Levy, Mishael Cheshin, and Elyakim Rubinstein today ruled that Zeev Rosenstein could be extradited to the US. They dismissed Rosenstein’s appeal against a ruling in favor of extradition by Jerusalem District Court Judge Jacob Zaban.
Rosenstein has been held under arrest in Israel since November 8, 2004. An arrest warrant was issued against him in the US on December 20, 2004, and the US submitted an official extradition request to Israel a few days later.
Rosenstein is accused in the US of conspiracy to import and distribute 1.5 million tablets of ecstasy in 1999-2001. Some of the tablets were purchased in the Netherlands, and transported to the US by way of Germany while concealed in vehicles.
The US asserts that Rosenstein’s role in the conspiracy took place entirely in Israel, at a time when he never left the country. At the same time, people linked to him imported the drugs to the US, and distributed them.
Undercover agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration bought ecstasy tablets from Rosenstein and his associates. They discovered an apartment in Manhattan where the tablets were stored. Most of the group involved was arrested. Some were tried, and have already been sentenced.
In Rosenstein’s appeal to the Supreme Court, his lawyers asserted that he should not be extradited to the US, because the actions attributed to him were all committed in Israel, and were linked primarily to Israel. They also claimed that Rosenstein should be allowed to stand trial in Israel, his natural and familiar surroundings, where his native language (Hebrew) is spoken, and where he was familiar with laws and law enforcement. It was also claimed that extraditing him would constitute discrimination, since others had been tried in Israel, even if their actions had been carried out in other countries.
Levy ruled that Rosenstein’s extradition would not constitute discrimination; furthermore, every extradition case should be considered independently, on its merits. The main victims of the acts attributed to Rosenstein are US residents and citizens, and the US bears the social and economic burden of dealing with this kind of act.
Although the actual conspiracy took place in Israel, the fact that the burden is placed on Americans establishes a foundation of moral values for extradition. “Every country has the right to defend itself against those seeking to harm it from outside,” Levy ruled.
Levy further stated that Israel and the US had signed an extradition treaty. He noted that Israel, like other countries, had to deal with a new criminal reality, in which crime had become organized and global. This is especially true of international drug violations.
At the same time, the public interest is not indifferent to the difficulty awaiting Israeli candidates for extradition. The law therefore poses a number of conditions designed to ensure that unjust extradition will not take place, and that those extradited will be guaranteed a fair procedure in a foreign country.
The final decision of whether to extradite Rosenstein is in the hands of Ministry of Justice Tzipi Livni. The maximum penalty in the US for the crimes of which Rosenstein is accused is 20 years in prison. If it can be proven that the drugs caused death or serious bodily harm to a user, however, the minimum penalty will be 20 years imprisonment.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on November 30, 2005