US media is reporting that an Israeli civil rights attorney has sent a letter to the US Attorney General requesting that the US Department of Justice extradite Hamas military commander Saleh al-Arouri for his role in the kidnapping and murder of American citizen Naftali Fraenkel.
Saleh al-Arouri
August 26, 2014 Israeli civil rights attorney, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Assistant AG Leslie Caldwell, requesting the Department of Justice extradite Hamas West Bank commander, Saleh al-Arouri, for his role in the kidnapping and murder of American citizen Naftali Fraenkel.
Al-Arouri, who runs the U.S. deemed terror group in the West Bank from Turkey, was seen on a video last week, addressing the fourth conference of the World Union of Islamic Sages in the Islamic Republic, and ‘boasting’ that Hamas’ Qassam Brigades had carried out the June kidnapping and killing of Fraenkel and Israeli teenagers, Eyal Yifrach and Gil-ad Shaar.
According to The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center near Tel Aviv, ‘He read his speech, saying that he was speaking on behalf of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.’
Darshan-Leitner, Founder and Director of the Shurat HaDin–Israel Law Center, a non-governmental organization (NGO), cites the aforementioned video in her letter to the Attorney General. She asks the Department of Justice to ‘take all necessary steps to compel the government of Turkey to extradite’ as well expresses confidence ‘that an investigation into the evidence of the kidnapping and murder of Fraenkel will result in the indictment and extradition of senior Hamas leader al-Arouri from Turkey.’
Pursuant to the Treaty of Extradition and Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters between both the U.S. and Turkey, the Islamic Republic is legally bound to extradite al-Arouri if he ‘committed a criminal act that would be punishable by Turkey, had the offense been perpetrated within its territorial jurisdiction,’ wrote Darshan-Leitner. ‘The US is the only country that can bring Arouri to justice.’
Last week, the GMBDW was the first to report that that Salah al-Arouri, a Hamas military leader residing in Turkey, had admitted that the Hamas military wing was responsible for the kidnapping, an event which sparked the recent round of the Gaza conflict. The admission was made at an Istanbul meeting of the iInternational Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, and attended by various Brotherhood luminiaries as well the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister. Subsequent Israeli media reports say that Salah al-Arouri (aka Saleh al-Arouri), who is based in Turkey, was also the mastermind behind what has been described as a Hamas coup attempt in the West Bank that was intended to end the rule of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and spark a third intifada. False claims that the Israeli police had exculpated Hamas in connection with the crime were for a time a staple on websites linked to a or sympathetic to Hamas and/or the Muslim Brotherhood.
We also reported last week that Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal had further confirmed that Hamas members were behind the West Bank killing of three Israeli teenagers.
