Furor over an Extradition

By James Kelly

An accused Arab terrorist is sent back to Israel for trial

Despite the currently icy relations between the U.S. and Israel, Washington recently sided with Jerusalem in a little-noticed case that has stirred a furor of protest in the Arab world. Ziad Abu Eain, 23, a Palestinian Arab and citizen of Jordan, was extradited from the U.S. to Israel two weeks ago to stand trial on charges that he set off a bomb in the Israeli resort city of Tiberias in May 1979 that killed two youths and injured 36 others. Abu Eain (rhymes with plain) and his supporters have fought a 2 1/2-year battle in U.S. courts against the extradition order, and the controversy refuses to fade away.

Foreign Minister Marwan Al Qasem of Jordan fired off a message to Secretary of State Alexander Haig expressing his country's "sorrow and pain." Chedli Klibi, secretary general of the Arab League, denounced the move as an "American crime." Palestinians demonstrated against the action in several West Bank towns and in East Jerusalem. Warned Abdeen Jabara of Detroit, one of Abu Eain's attorneys: "This decision will come back to haunt the U.S."

The Israeli charges against Abu Eain were based on the testimony of Jamil Yassin, an admitted member of the Palestine Liberation Organization who was arrested for a string of bombings, including the Tiberias explosion, in June 1979. Israeli soldiers found in Yassin's home in Ramallah what one Israeli security officer described as a "bomb factory, pure and simple." Yassin confessed that he built the bomb and recruited Abu Eain to plant it in Tiberias. Yassin was sentenced to life imprisonment, but Abu Eain had already fled Ramallah to visit a sister in Chicago. Israeli officials asked the U.S. to send him back to Israel to stand trial. On Aug. 21,1979, FBI agents picked up the suspect in Chicago, and the extradition process began.

By the time Abu Eain's hearing was held in Chicago before Federal Magistrate Olga Jurco in the fall of 1979, Yassin had repudiated his testimony and insisted that Abu Eain was not involved in the bombing. Abu Eain, moreover, produced affidavits from a dozen friends and relatives, who swore that at the time of the bombing he was in Ramallah, a two-hour drive from Tiberias. Jurco nevertheless ruled that there was "probable cause" to believe that Abu Eain may be guilty; in effect, she held that the conflicting evidence should properly be aired in an Israeli court. The judge also ordered that Abu Eain be held without bail, a common practice in extradition cases.

The defense lawyers argued that whether or not he was guilty, Abu Eain could not be extradited because he was being charged with a "political offense"; the 1963 extradition treaty between the U.S. and Israel allows for the exemption of political prisoners. The State Department, however, advised the court that "exploding a bomb is not an offense of a political character but of terrorism."

Officials in Washington had reason to be worried about the implications of the Abu Eain case. In May 1979 a federal magistrate in California had refused to permit the extradition of Peter McMullen, a former member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who was wanted by the British on charges of setting three bombs in Claro Barracks near Liverpool in England, wounding one person. The judge had ruled that the bombing was "a political disturbance." State Department officials were eager to extradite Abu Eain to prove, as one government attorney put it, that the U.S. was not "a haven for terrorists."

While his lawyers appealed the Jurco decision, Abu Eain remained in Chicago's Metropolitan Community Correctional Center. Twice he staged hunger strikes (the longest one lasted for three weeks), and his weight dropped from 170 lbs. to 125 lbs. Sticking to his claim that he was a political prisoner, he refused to work or to wear a prison uniform, and on several occasions simply went naked in his cell.

Meanwhile, representatives of twelve Arab-American organizations formed a defense committee that raised more than $100,000 for Abu Eain's cause. Last March, ambassadors and charges d'affaires from 17 Arab countries wrote to Alexander Haig, protesting Abu Eain's possible extradition. According to a Jordanian diplomat in the U.S., King Hussein appealed "at the highest possible levels" to have Abu Eain returned to Jordan instead of to Israel.

Arab Americans rallied to Abu Eain's support partly because they feared that his extradition would set a precedent, making Palestinians in the U.S. (there are 125,000 of them) vulnerable to Israeli pressure. Clovis Maksoud, the Arab League's observer to the United Nations, cast the case in terms of whether the U.S. will allow "Israel to exercise legal authority over Arab citizens." Added Maksoud: "This case constitutes a very dangerous precedent, where the long arms of Israel can reach out and arrest anybody in this country."

In October the Supreme Court refused to review Abu Eain's case. It was then up to the State Department to decide if he should be extradited. In approving the move, Deputy Secretary of State William Clark released a six-page memo explaining his reasoning. "Our treaty with Israel and compelling law require a conclusion that Abu Eain be extradited," wrote Clark. "I do not make any decision of Abu Eain's guilt or innocence. That determination can be made only by a trial court."

The explanation did not satisfy Abu Eain's supporters. They wondered why he had been turned over to Israeli authorities without notification being given to his attorneys. Others feared that Abu Eain could not win justice in Israel. "It's ludicrous to think a Palestinian will get a fair trial under these circumstances," said Jabara. Countered an Israeli Justice Ministry official: "If the U.S. didn't think he'd get a fair trial, they wouldn't have sent him back to us." Salah Khalaf, a member of Al Fatah, the largest faction within the P.L.O., even threatened reprisals. "In view of this grave act," he said, "the Palestinians reserve the right to retaliate properly when we wish." Meanwhile, in a Jerusalem prison cell, Ziad Abu Eain awaits his trial, which is scheduled to begin Tel Aviv on Jan. 11.-- By James Kelly Reported by Jay Branegan/Chicago and Robert Rosenberg/Jerusalem

With reporting by Jay Branegan, Robert Rosenberg

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