Israeli who trained Colombia guerillas wins appeal against extradition

[Judi Lynn]

Last update - 15:30 01/04/2010
Israeli who trained Colombia guerillas wins appeal against extradition
By DPA

An Israeli mercenary convicted by Colombia for training paramilitary squads linked to drug trafficking in the 1980s won an appeal against extradition from Russia, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said on Wednesday.

Gal Yair Klein, born in 1943, was tried in absentia in 2001 for training the "death squads" which were used by Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha and Pablo Escobar, leaders of the notorious Medellin drug cartel, to wage war against the Colombian state in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Yair Klein also spent 16 months in a Sierra Leone jail between 1999 and 2000, charged with smuggling arms for the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) guerrilla.

A former commando from the Israeli army, Yair Klein was arrested in Russia in 2007 on the basis of an Interpol warrant and is still being detained in Moscow. He is resisting extradition, claiming he life would be in danger if he was sent to Colombia.

Yair Klein based this claim by pointing out that the then vicep resident of Colombia, Humberto De la Calle Lombana, greeted news of his arrest by saying that "it should be ensured that this gentleman rots in jail for his participation in the training of armed groups."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1160447.html

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http://www.haaretz.com.nyud.net:8090/hasite/images/iht_daily/D030608/250klyne_hanan_ezran.jpg http://www.elpais.com.co.nyud.net:8090/historico/ago292007/fotos-periodico2/COaAAGO29-07N1,photo01.JPG

Yair Klein

Yair Klein Wikipedia:

Yair Klein (Hebrew: יאיר קליין‎; also known as Jair Klein) is an Israeli and a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army, who established a private mercenary company called Spearhead Ltd.

Through Spearhead Ltd, Klein provided arms and training to armed forces in South America.<1>

Klein and his company have been accused of training the death-squads of drug traffickers and right-wing militias in Colombia in the 1980s.<2>

Klein was convicted by judicial authorities in Colombia for training several members of Colombian paramilitary groups and the militias of drug traffickers such as Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha and Pablo Escobar Gaviria in 1987.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yair_Klein

[Wilms]

1. Figures. n/t