An Israeli judge has ruled in favor of extraditing a West Bank couple to the United States to face murder charges.
Jerusalem District Court Judge Zvi Cohen ruled Friday that Robert Manning, 39, and his wife, Rochelle, 51, former residents of Los Angeles, should be extradited to face charges in the death of a California secretary, who was killed in 1980 by an explosive device mailed to her firm.
The judge based his ruling on new evidence submitted by U.S. authorities, whose extradition request was filed last year.
The Mannings, who are residents of the settlement of Kiryat Arba and followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, have 30 days to appeal the decision to the High Court of Justice.
Cohen ordered the couple held in custody, pending the outcome.
Rochelle Manning was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in June 1988, on suspicion of mailing the July 1980 booby-trapped parcel that killed Patricia Wilkerson, a secretary at a California computer company.
According to the charge sheet, both Mannings sent the bomb to Wilkerson’s employer, Brenda Krothmel, at the instigation of their friend, William Ross, who had a business dispute with Krothmel.
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