The Good Life of Criminal Suspects Who Flee to Israel
Amid cumbersome extradition procedures, Jewish suspects from France and the former Soviet Union find sanctuary via the Law of Return
Shuki Sadeh
Oct 21, 2019 1:09 AM
Eddie Abittan, who moved to Israel from France 16 years ago, feels comfortable in his new-ish home. So comfortable, in fact, that when his wife competed in (and won) the reality show “Master Chef Israel,” he showed up with their children, mugged for the cameras, and ran to hug her and the judges when she was declared the winner.
But the next day Channel 13 News reported that Abittan had been convicted in absentia in France, sentenced to six years in prison and fined 1 million euros in a high-profile fraud case. At issue was the purchase of carbon dioxide emission quotas (based on the Kyoto Protocol) while skirting 1.6 billion euros in value-added tax.
Abittan is said to have built financial networks in tax havens around the world to hide money from the French authorities. Abittan thus doesn’t dare visit his birth country, but no extradition request has been filed yet because he has appealed his conviction.
“My client is marginal to this case,” says his lawyer Yaron London, a former head of the Israel Police’s international crimes desk. “It’s true he got six years, but he believes this was a mistake. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s no reason he can’t appear on ‘Master Chef.’ The media portrayed it as if he ran away. That’s nonsense.
“Over the past few years, French investigators have been here to investigate, and I’ve accompanied them. Extradition, if it comes up, won’t be a simple matter. In the past, France was in no hurry to extradite French criminals who committed crimes in Israel and escaped to France. If France asks for his extradition, it’s clear this will be fought over.”
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Abittan isn’t alone. Hundreds of Jews have taken advantage of Israel’s Law of Return in the hope they would not be extradited. But in the last two decades, based on legislation from the late ‘90s, Israel has ramped up its number of extraditions.
Malka Leifer is brought to a courtroom in Jerusalem, February 27, 2018. Mahmoud Illean / AP A high-profile case at the moment is of former school principal Malka Leifer, who has been in Israel for 11 years – and in detention since February 2018 – after fleeing Australia amid charges she raped three of her students, all sisters. A court is once again considering whether Leifer should be extradited. Her lawyers argue that she is mentally unfit to stand trial.
