Why did Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant allow a sweetheart interview to accused sex offender Rabbi Eliezer Berland on the moment of a court’s decision on extradiction to Israel?
Rabbi who fled Israel on sex crimes charges seeking return | JPost | Feb. 2014 |
Breslev Hassidim Rabbi Eliezer Berland has hired attorneys after a year of exile in countries that don’t have an extradition treaty with Israel. Berland has spent the past year traveling with an entourage of followers from one country to the next, living in countries that don’t have an extradition treaty with Israel.
People close to the rabbi said Berland has hired the services of attorneys Roi Belcher and Moshe Mazor, ahead of what may be an attempt to return to Israel.
Berland, the founder and head of the Shuvu Benim Yeshiva in Jerusalem’s Old City, has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by a number of female followers.
The Israel Police does not have an arrest warrant for him, but he is considered “wanted for questioning” in connection to the allegations.
The lawyers he hired are also part of the legal team representing Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, the rabbi at the center of the corruption case involving Menashe Arbiv, the former head of the Israel Police unit LAHAV 433.
After Two Years on the Run, Fugitive Rabbi Nabbed in Holland | Sept. 2014 |
After two years on the run from Israeli authorities suspected sex-offender Rabbi Eliezer Berland has reportedly been arrested in Amsterdam’s international airport, and will soon be extradited back to Israel.
Some will be asking how the runaway rabbi managed to escape facing justice until now, but his network of loyal followers proved key both in hiding him and helping him give police the slip on numerous occasions.
Just last week Berland dodged police in Johannesburg, South Africa, by the skin of his teeth as he traveled to officiate at the wedding of one of his followers. Police attempted to ambush the car he was traveling in, but the fugitive rabbi managed a dramatic escape.
Court Rules Not to Extradite Rabbi Berland to Israel at This Time
There is joy in the Shuvu Banim community after a Dutch court on Monday 9 Kislev 5775 announced its verdict in the extradition request filed by Israel against Rabbi Eliezer Berland. The court announced that it will not comply with the request at this time.
The rabbi’s legal team dispelled some of the evidence against the rabbi provided by Israel. The court will request that Israel provide additional proof in order to reevaluate the case in the future but is unwilling to comply with the extradition request at this time.
In Dutch interview – Sexrabbi: “I don’t have feelings of lust.”
| By Harmen Bockma, Maud Effting | De Volkskrant | Jan. 28, 2015 |He tells of women climbing through his window, seeking advice. Israel wants to prosecute him for sexual assault. Tomorrow a court in Harlem, jurisdiction of Schiphol International Airport where he was apprehended, will decide on an extradiction request from Israel to the Dutch of Ranni Eliezer Berland (77).
‘I don’t have a sex drive,’ says Eliezer Berland, the man who for months is known as the ‘sezrabbi.’ ‘I have no feeling. Er are no sexual lust feelings anymore. For the last 20 years.’ All the women that accuse him now of assault? It’s not possible he had false intentions with them, he states.
‘Sex?’, he says. ‘No, no, no. I have had a prostate operation.’
Sexrabbi
Sitting at the antique table of his lawyer is Eliezer Berland …
[Source: Het Parool]
According to his lawyer Louis de Leon, Bertrand is too ill to stand trial for the drimes he has been accused of. According to him are his heart problems of the 77-years old rabbi so serious, he cannot be extradited to Israel.
Allegations that Rabbi Berland has committed sexual offences against female followers have been published. Several women reported that the rabbi sexually harassed or raped them. The allegations came to light in 2012, when the newspaper Israel Hayom reported an incident in which one of Berland’s students encountered him at home, standing beside a naked woman. His supporters expressed anger over the report, and the person who leaked the story to the media was later violently attacked.
Follow the money – and those rabbis [Source Haaretz]
Rabbi Nachman Berland, son of fugitive Shuvu Banim leader Rabbi Elizer Berland, is suspected of transferring funds to colleagues and relatives.
An unusual-looking tourist arrived two weeks ago in Zimbabwe. The bearded man and his small entourage did not arrive in this southern African nation on business. They came neither to ride an elephant nor to visit the magnificent Victoria Falls. Rabbi Eliezer Berland, suspected of having committed sex crimes in Israel, was forced to leave Morocco, where he had taken refuge in April, when the Jerusalem police called him in for questioning. King Mohammed VI of Morocco refused to let the rabbi and his Bratslav Hasidic community establish a branch in his kingdom. Once expelled from Morocco, Berland journeyed south to Johannesburg and then presumably continued on to Zimbabwe.
But stories of Berland’s alleged sex crimes against wives of his followers are not the first shockwaves to have hit the Shuvu Banim community in Jerusalem in recent years. The various nonprofit associations of the community, which was founded by Berland, have long since descended into financial chaos.