8/4/2019 dea ofrece protecciòn de testigowww-haaretz-co-il

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/dea-ofrece-proteccion-de-testigowww-haaretz-co-il 1/2

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o . i l

26/08/2008 00:00 ב- ןכדוע

Mob boss crony denies singing to AmericansBy Amir Zohar

On Monday, an Israeli believed to be one of the key figures in the Abergil crime

organization denied having either joined the FBI's witness protection program or .of testifying against an alleged Israeli kingpin

Yoram Elal, who has been in Brazil for the past two years, told his brother on thephone from Brazil on Monday, "No witness program, no way, I have nothing to

." testify about

I see it all on the Internet and television, but I'm calm and live my life quietly and".not underground," he was cited by his brother, Nissim, as having told him

Elal spent his first 18 months in Brazil in prison. He had left Israel in December 2003, four hours after the attempted murder of another crime figure, Ze'ev

.Rozenstein, on Tel Aviv's Yehuda Halevy street

Yitzhak Abergil's attorney, Sharon Nahari, who represented Elal in Brazil whenthe U.S. asked for his extradition last year, said "Elal's extradition request was

based on the same apparent evidence now cited against Abergil, especially the." testimonies that Gabi Ben Harush gave in Los Angeles

Nahari was commenting on reports that Elal had agreed to join the FBI's witness.protection program and had incriminated Abergil

In the U.S., Elal is suspected by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency of joining two other Abergil men, Ben Harush and Hai Vaknin, in setting up a crime

.ring in 2003

That organization is alleged to have distributed millions of ecstasy pills and to

have laundered millions of dollars obtained from Etti Alon's embezzlemen t of .the Trade Bank, and from the extortion of business people

Vaknin and Ben Harush were arrested, but Elal managed to flee to Uruguay..However, he was arrested there six months later

In October 2005, Elal's brother Nissim managed to spring him from prison, withthe help of local people who impersonated officials from Uruguay's justice

.ministry

I paid and got him out of prison," Nissim said. "We both know what needs to be"done in these situations." Elal settled down in Brazil but was arrested about two

.years ago in Rio de Janeiro

For a year and a half we fought against American and Uruguayan extradition"requests," Nahari said, who added that the conditions in the Brazilian prison

.were especially harsh

Only by appealing to a 12-judge panel in the supreme court did we manage,".with the help of a local lawyer, to release him

The Americans presented evidence they had allegedly gathered against Vaknin"and Ben Harush, but the court decided that the evidence was not corroborated

and decided to let him go. I hope the Israeli court exercises the same judgement.with Abergil," he said

Nissim Elal said that when his brother was arrested, the Americans pleaded

with him to enter the witness protection program, but had since eased up on the .pressure

Yoram is not a criminal, he's only being associated to this story because he's a".friend of Itzik Abergil," he said

Apart from Ben Harush, there's another Jerusalem criminal type who's been"

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

8/4/2019 dea ofrece protecciòn de testigowww-haaretz-co-il

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/dea-ofrece-proteccion-de-testigowww-haaretz-co-il 2/2

opening his mouth there, Yehuda (Jodi) Ben Atar, who was sentenced to 20years in jail and has recently entered the witness protection program," he said."This Jodi, who was king of the underworld in Los Angeles, began to talk, and

." incriminated a lot of people

" © ץראה ," תורומש תויוכזה לכ

ןולח רוגס

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com