Israel will not extradite to the United States two Israelis wanted to stand trial there for the murder of a wealthy Californian couple in October 1987, the police said Sunday. But they may be put on trial in Israel.
Yair Orr, 30, and Nadav Nakan, 33, both formerly of Kibbutz Alonim southeast of Haifa, were arrested in Tel Aviv last week when the police told the Petach Tikva Magistrates Court that they were suspects in the Oct. 5, 1987 murder of Carmen and Jack Hindley.
The couple were reportedly shot to death while they slept in their Santa Barbara mansion.
Orr was ordered detained for 10 days, and Nakan for five, to enable the U.S. Justice Department to decide how to pursue the case. Israeli law forbids the extradition of anyone who was an Israeli citizen at the time he committed the crime in question.
But the police have reportedly cooperated with the FBI in an effort to find evidence against the suspects which would be admissible in court here. A trial in Israel is the only alternative open to U.S. prosecution.
Police told the court that Orr and Nakan were interrogated by the California authorities after the murder, but they were reportedly released because of an alibi provided by another Israeli, Haim Tuvya.
But Orr’s wife told reporters on Saturday that Tuvya had called her husband from the United States recently, to tell him that he had changed his testimony.
The FBI is said to suspect that the Hindley murder was ordered by the couple’s son-in-law, Charles Le Garo, who, together with his wife, inherited some $6 million from her parents.
Police said that Orr was a close friend of Le Garo. The two had been business partners.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
