The Cabinet today approved a report of the Ministerial Committee which blamed two senior government officials for “inconsiderate action on their own responsibilities” in connection with the deportation of the late Robert Soblen, the convicted American spy who committed suicide in London after his deportation from Israel.
The officials, who were not named but were identified as officials of the Foreign Ministry and Prime Minister’s Office respectively, were said to have acted in good faith to serve their ministers who were not consulted on the expulsion. The ministers concerned, however, were requested to warn the officials that overzealousness in the future without prior consultation will result in their bearing responsibility for their actions.
The report found that Soblen’s detention was lawful since he arrived under a brother’s forged passport, that he had two weekdays and a Saturday in which his lawyer–whom he was able to choose immediately on arrest–was able to seek a writ of habeas corpus to stay the expulsion.
The police notified Soblen that he was to be deported only at 10 o’clock Saturday evening because of the Sabbath and also to lessen the tension between the notification of his expulsion and the time of departure in view of his poor health, the report stated. On hearing the order, Soblen broke into hysterics, banged his head against the wall, and since Jail regulations do not permit outside contact between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m., he was unable to contact his lawyer before his deportation early Sunday morning, the report continued.
The report categorically denied that force was used to get Soblen onto the plane or that extradition negotiations took place with United States authorities. The report stressed that when American Ambassador Walworth Barbour asked Premier Ben-Gurion about Soblen, he was told this was purely an internal matter. The report strongly denied that Israel asked for an American to accompany Soblen, U. S. Marshal McShane or anyone else. Neither at the airport nor throughout the plane Journey to Athens nor during the stopover, nor on board the second plane did McShane approach Soblen or sit alongside him, the report emphasized.
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