Israel fervently desires to maintain its traditionally good relations with Argentina, Arieh Levavi, Israel’s Ambassador to Buenos Aires, today told the Argentine Government, He gave that assurance in response to a formal demand, presented to him by Argentine Foreign Minister Diogenes Taboada last night, for the return of Adolf Eichmann to Argentina.
The Argentine communication said that, if Eichmann were returned, Israel could then ask his extradition “through means contemplated by international law.” Under the extradition treaty signed by the two countries last May, extradition is permitted only when the crime is punishable by prison terms of a minimum of three years in both countries.
In the note, which asserted that if Eichmann were not returned in one week. Argentina would then take the issue to the United Nations, the Buenos Aires Government said that, if more than one country asked Eichmann’s extradition, after his return to Argentina, he would be delivered to the country in which the most serious crime was committed or “in the case of equality, to the first petitioning country.”
The note added that, if Eichmann were extradited on genocide charges, he would have to be tried either in Germany, the site of the crime, or before an international tribunal in accordance with the UN Convention on Genocide, to which Argentina and Israel are signatories, Israel’s explanation that volunteers seized Eichmann constituted recognition of responsibility by Israel for “the violation of Argentine sovereignty,” the note added.
“This Government understands perfectly the sentiments which Jewish people may harbor toward a man charged with extermination in the concentration camps, ” the note stated. Moreover, Argentina recognized that Eichmann had been living in Argentina under false documents, an “evidently irregular situation” which “was in no way in conformity with conditions for asylum or territorial refuge.” But all of these circumstances, the note asserted, did not alter the obligations of UN member states to abide by international law.
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