Israel extends teen’s detention

JERUSALEM, Dec. 1 (JTA) — An Israeli court has extended the detention of a Maryland teen-ager charged with murder. During the next two weeks, the Justice Ministry is slated to decide whether to honor a formal extradition request for Samuel Sheinbein submitted last month by American officials. Sheinbein, 17, fled to Israel in September, shortly after the body of 19-year-old Alfred Tello was found in a Maryland suburb. Maryland police suspect that Sheinbein and another suspect killed Tello and dismembered his body with a saw. Sheinbein hoped to escape trial in the United States by claiming Israeli citizenship through his father, who was born here and left in 1950. Under Israeli law, a citizen cannot be extradited for a crime committed in another country. But after pressure from the United States, Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein recently stated that the citizenship law does not apply to Sheinbein.