Russel Kelner, national coordinator of the Jewish Defense League, was fined $1000 yesterday and put on four years probation for threatening to kill Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat last November. Federal Judge Richard Owens, who also gave Kelner a one-year suspended jail sentence, said he was giving the JDL official the benefit of the doubt, because he did not mean to carry out the threat. Kelner made the threat during a televised news conference just prior to Arafat’s appearance at the United Nations. He was convicted last month by a Manhattan federal court jury. The maximum penalty is five years in prison and a $1000 fine.
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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.