JERUSALEM, Nov. 6 (JTA) – The governor of Maryland has appealed to Israel to speed up a decision on whether to extradite an American Jewish teen-ager wanted on charges he committed a brutal murder. Gov. Parris Glendening, who was in Israel on a trade mission, was expected to raise the matter in a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Samuel Sheinbein, who is suspected of involvement in a brutal murder in a Maryland suburb, fled to Israel days after the body was discovered. He is being held in an Israeli jail pending the outcome of the court ruling on whether he is an Israeli citizen. Under Israeli law, a citizen who commits a crime abroad cannot be extradited, but can be tried in Israel. Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein declared last month that the youth is not a citizen and can be extradited. “We feel people have been cooperative and fair,” Glendening told Israel Radio. “Back home, of course, we have the family of the victim, as well as the community, which saw a particularly horrendous crime, a murder and dismemberment and burning of the body,” Glendening said he was convinced that the Israeli authorities were fully cooperating in the case. Meanwhile, in Maryland, vandals spray-painted a swastika and other anti-Semitic graffiti on the garage of Sheinbein’s home. Police are investigating the incident.
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