Moslie to face possible extradition to Israel

OWN CORRESPONDENT

This follows protracted legal wrangling over the legal validity of Israeli and local documents submitted by the state in support of the extradition application.

Moslie was arrested in Johannesburg on an Interpol warrant in October 2015 and has appeared in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court several times since then.

He faces several charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in Israel. The alleged offences relate to Israeli gang warfare, with several members of Israeli criminal organisations being killed and having their lives threatened.

Moslie has denied any knowledge of any warrants for his arrest in Israel for these charges before he left the country in 2011.

Anton Katz SC, representing Moslie, argued that his client’s arrest was an abuse of his rights and of the court process, as the Israeli request was based on the evidence of only one witness.

In addition, he said the Israeli documents were flawed, as the dates indicating when they were signed were incorrect – being several days after the court hearing at which they were submitted by the state in January last year.

Moslie’s counsel also queried the admissibility of some of the evidence disclosed in the state documents.

The state was represented by advocate Deon Barnard from the office of the director of public prosecutions.

In an unusual move in such applications, Moslie was granted bail early last year, after these issues were raised. Bail is hardly ever granted in an extradition request based on such serious allegations.

Since Moslie’s arrest, some of the pending charges in Israel have been withdrawn.s

Delivering judgment, magistrate Pravina Rughunandan said it was premature for her to rule on the admissibility of the evidence in question, as that was a matter for the actual extradition application or the trial.

She pointed out that an extradition application was not a regular judicial proceeding, but was unique (“sui generis”), and the rules applying to it were not the same as those in an ordinary judicial proceeding.

She did not accept that the state’s documentation was fatally flawed and said it was in the interests of fairness and justice for the extradition application to proceed.

The matter will be heard in Randburg on March 26 and 27.

Moslie’s bail was extended.

Moslie has been in South Africa for six years and has various business interests in this country. He lives with his wife and young children in Johannesburg.