Israel’s Supreme Court has rejected the latest in a series of appeals by Robert Manning, thereby clearing the way for his extradition to the United States, where he is wanted on charges connected to a 1980 mail-bombing murder in California.
On Sunday, the court rejected Manning’s argument that he should be tried in Israel and not America. The court has also rejected Manning’s argument that as a prisoner in the United States he would be unable to fulfill his religious commitments properly as an observant Jew.
Manning, 39, and his wife Rochelle, 51, who are American immigrants, are both wanted in the United States in connection with the murder of secretary Patricia Wilkinson by a parcel-bomb addressed to her employer.
The couple’s fingerprints allegedly were found on the wrapping paper of the parcel.
The couple moved to Israel and settled in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba several years ago.
Rochelle Manning has appealed her extradition order on the grounds that she has already been tried in the United States for the murder charge, in a trial that resulted in a hung jury.
To extradite her to the United States for a second trial would violate the legal principle against double jeopardy, Rochelle Manning claims. That appeal is still before the court.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
