_a.jpg "Photo: Eli Elgarat")
Illustration
Photo: Eli Elgarat
Man wanted for rape of stepdaughter to be extradited
Court orders extradition of French man charged with abusing 12-year old stepdaughter for two years
The Jerusalem District Court on Sunday ordered the extradition of a 52-year old French citizen who fled to Israel after being charged with the rape and abuse of his stepdaughter.
The man fled to Israel two weeks after the beginning of his trial, in June 2007, and was arrested in November. The crimes with which he is charged were allegedly committed by the man prior to receiving Israeli citizenship.
According to the indictment filed against him in France, the man committed indecent acts against his stepdaughter in the years 2003-2005, from the time she was 12.
The charges against him were filed following a complaint filed by the girl and her mother with the French police. A month later he took advantage of the house arrest to which he was sentenced and fled to Israel.
In December of 2007 he was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison. In March of 2008 authorities in France appealed to Israel for extradition orders in order to try him in his presence.
The appeal to Israel stresses that the French authorities do not intend to place the man in prison but rather to repeal the sentence and try him again. The State Prosecutor's Office agreed to this request after Justice Amnon Cohen rejected the man's pleas that extradition would endanger his life.
The man based his pleas on a claim that many of the detainees in French prisons are Arab and that anti-Semitism runs rampant there. The judge determined that French jails "adhere to criteria of human and prisoners' rights".
