WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (JTA) — Israel has scheduled an
extradition hearing for next month of the U.S. teen-ager who fled to
Israel after allegedly committing murder. Samuel Sheinbein will face eight days of hearings, beginning Feb. 22, before a three-judge panel. A Montgomery County, Md. state’s attorney is expected to attend the hearing as a non-participating observer. 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 in pre-state Palestine 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, Israel’s attorney general, Elyakim Rubinstein, stated that the citizenship law does not apply to Sheinbein.
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