Officials expect an Israeli police officer to arrive here Tuesday to escort Shalom Shtarkes back to Israel to face charges of perjury and kidnaping. The 24-year-old Jewish religious teacher was ordered extradited in a Home Office announcement made here this weekend.
Shtarkes, implicated in the 1960 kidnaping of young Yossele Schumacher, his nephew, will be removed, “as soon as the necessary escort and travel arrangements have been made, ” the Home Office announcement said. Michael Rubinstein, Shtarkes’ counsel, said on Friday that legal action would be taken immediately to forestall the Home Office decision. “Contrary to reports, the long legal battle is not over,” he said.
Shtarkes was arrested here in August 1961 on an extradition warrant issued by the Israel Government accusing him of kidnaping, concealing an abducted person, and perjury. The High Court here last February dismissed Shtarkes’ application for a writ of habeas corpus to prevent his extradition. Last month the House of Lords dismissed his appeal against this decision. (Yossele, discovered in Brooklyn last June, is now back home in Israel with his parents.)
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