Eichmann Trial judge passes away

Former Supreme Court president Moshe Landau dies in Jerusalem home at age of 99 after suffering heart attack. In 1961 he presided over Eichmann Trial

Yair Altman|Published: 05.01.11 , 17:58

Retired Judge Moshe Landau, Israel's fifth Supreme Court president and the presiding judge in the trial of Adolf Eichmann, passed away in Jerusalem on Sunday at the age of 99.

Landau died of a cardiac arrest on the eve of the Holocaust Remembrance Day. Several years ago he signed a Do Not Resuscitate form.

Landau was born in Danzig, Poland in 1912. He studied law in the University of London in the early 1930s and made aliyah in 1933. In 1937 he was admitted to the Bar of Palestine and was later appointed a judge at the Haifa Magistrate's Court.

Landau during Eichmann trial

In 1948 he was made judge in the city's district court. In 1953, at the age of 41, Landau was appointed a Supreme Court judge. He famously presided over the Eichmann Trial in 1961. He retired in 1982 after a two-year stint as President of the Supreme Court.

Landau served in a number of public positions throughout his life and was member of the Agranat Commission, chairman of the World Zionist Congress and member of the International Court of Justice.

He was also Chairman of the Commission for recognition of righteous among the nations in Yad Vashem and Chairman of the board of directors of the Technion. In 1987, he headed the Landau Commission to investigate the Shin Bet's procedures.

President Shimon Peres said, "The State of Israel will remember Moshe Landau as a model for ideological and brave leadership."

Former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak said Sunday that Landau acted in an objective and stately manner as the presiding judge in the Eichmann trial. "Landau was one of our greatest judges," he told Ynet. "He was among the founders of Israeli law."