FF 666, heart attack time (again): "Court Approves Extraditing Israeli
By MARK LAVIE
.c The Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) - In the first test of a new law allowing the extradition of Israeli citizens, a court Thursday
approved sending an Israeli back to New York to face fraud charges.
The decision will be appealed, his lawyer said.
Sharon Harosh, 35, was charged with grand larceny in New York for allegedly defrauding elderly people of at least
$188,500 through a fictitious brokerage firm. Harosh was born in Israel and moved to the United States in 1991. He
married an American citizen in 1993 and received resident alien status in 1996.
He fled back to Israel in August 1998, after New York authorities froze his bank accounts.
Until last year, Israeli law forbade extraditing citizens under any circumstances. Embarrassed by the case of Maryland
teen-ager Samuel Sheinbein, who fled to Israel to avoid trial on murder charges, lawmakers changed the regulations.
Under the present law, citizens can be sent for trial in another country, if that nation pledges to send the person back to
Israel to serve the sentence if convicted.
In Thursday's ruling, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that because Harosh is a permanent resident of the United
States and returned to Israel only to avoid prosecution, there is no need for a promise that he be returned.
Lawyer Israel Klein, representing Harosh, said that he would file an appeal with the Supreme Court. He said that since
moving back here, Harosh has resumed his life as an Israeli.
Klein said that if the United States pledges to return him to Israel after the trial, ``that might have an influence on our
thinking.'
Harosh's wife and two children received immigrant status when they came to Israel, Klein said, adding that the family
has bought a house.
Klein said Harosh was not the main operator in the stock fraud scheme. New York police said he set up a fictitious
company, Blackwell Co., and persuaded elderly people that they would make a quick profit by investing in it.
When they requested his extradition, New York police added another larceny charge, alleging that he was involved in
another fraudulent scheme, using the same methods with a fictitious firm called Goldman Lender Holding Co.
AP-NY-03-30-00 1539EST" |
