Israel Extradites Convicted Jew to France
A French Jew who sought to avoid a life sentence for murder by emigrating to Israel was extradited to France on Wednesday after a 2 1/2-year legal battle.
Handcuffed and with chains around his legs, William Nakash silently boarded an El Al Airlines flight to Paris escorted by two French policemen, Israel’s national Itim news agency reported.
His case stirred controversy in Israel between religious and secular Jews over whether rabbinical tribunals may overrule state courts.
Nakash, 25, declared himself an Orthodox Jew in 1985 after the extradition proceedings began. The country’s rabbinical courts quickly rallied behind him, issuing an order prohibiting his leaving the country. The Israeli government approved the extradition after the rabbinical order expired.
Nakash arrived in Israel a month after the February, 1983 gangland-style murder in France of Algerian-born Abdallah Hakkar. A French court convicted Nakash for the murder later that year and issued a life sentence in absentia.
Nakash, meanwhile, falsely registered himself in Israel as Rudy Atlan and became a citizen in accordance with the Law of Return, which grants automatic citizenship to all Jewish immigrants.
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