The Ministry of the Interior said yesterday it would issue a temporary resident’s visa to Peter Liberman of Detroit, thus granting him asylum from a United States effort to have him returned to the United States on charges of passport fraud.
It was understood that the United States had accepted the decision and that it would not take any further action. Liberman came to Israel in August as a stowaway on an ocean liner.
The Ministry, in notifying Liberman’s attorney of the decision, indicated that a further decision on the Detroit man’s application for an immigrant’s visa had been postponed. Liberman had sought asylum under the Israel Law of Return.
A Ministry spokesman said that the decision to allow the American to remain did not represent a change of policy and that Israel would continue to bar fugitives from Justice and would discourage them from seeking to invoke the Law of Return to force Israel to provide them refuge.
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