The police have recommended to the Jerusalem district prosecutor that charges be leveled against Lieut. Col. (Res.) Yair Klein for breaching regulations concerning the illegal export of military and security equipment and know-how.
Klein is charged with having established a training camp for security personnel on the Caribbean island of Antigua without having received official permission to make use of the knowledge he gained in the Israel Defense Force.
The Israeli Defense Ministry has requested a police investigation into Klein’s activities in Antigua.
Klein, who heads Hod Hahanit (Spearhead), a security consulting firm, was earlier accused of sending Israeli weapons to Colombia without official authorization. The weapons were discovered last year in the arsenal of slain Colombian drug lord Jose Rodriguez Gacha, after he was killed in a Shootout with police in December 1989 — six months after the arms were shipped to Antigua.
Klein was questioned at some length last year about charges that he personally supervised the training of assassination squads employed by the Colombian drug cartels.
He claimed that videotaped evidence which allegedly showed him training death squads actually showed him training farmers to protect themselves against cattle rustlers and guerrillas.
Colombia reportedly has an arrest warrant out for Klein.
The maximum penalty in Israel for breaching arms export controls is three years’ imprisonment.
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.
