Israeli professor Gal Luft has appealed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials to “rescue” him from being imprisoned in the US.
The Larnaca District Courthouse held on Friday a session to look into the American authorities' request to extradite Luft to be brought to trial in the US over breaching the law of selling oil and weapons.
Luft said the prosecution is politically motivated over incriminating information he has in a corruption case against Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden.
Luft, 56, an energy security and diplomatic expert, serves as the co-director of the Washington-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS).
He was arrested at the Larnaca International Airport, in Cyprus, after Interpol issued an arrest warrant against him on suspicion of arms trafficking to Libya and China.
Luft went on to deny suspicions leveled against him, stressing that he has “never been an arms dealer” and further claiming that the US Justice Department is “trying to bury me to protect Biden” and his family.
He added that he was being targeted for information handed in 2019 as part of Hunter Biden’s alleged corruption case.
After his arrest, Luft sent letters to Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, Defense Minister Yoav Galant, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, and the International Cooperation Department at the Ministry of Justice and asked them to intervene to rescue him.
Speaking to the Ynet studio on Sunday, Luft's attorney Mordechai Tzivin said: “When there is a political motive, Interpol does not extradite, or when there is a danger to someone’s life. I don't want to say that he is in mortal danger, but he is indeed in great danger.”
Tzivin expressed concern about handing over his client to the US.
The Cypriot court on Friday decided to release Luft but keep him under house arrest and made him turn over his passport.
