Israeli Prof. Appeals to Netanyahu to ‘Rescue Him from Biden’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, on February 23, 2023. (AFP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, on February 23, 2023. (AFP)
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Israeli Prof. Appeals to Netanyahu to ‘Rescue Him from Biden’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, on February 23, 2023. (AFP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, on February 23, 2023. (AFP)

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.



UK to Use Police Stations as Prisons under Emergency Measure

Police officers are seen in London, Britain, November 27, 2024. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
Police officers are seen in London, Britain, November 27, 2024. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
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UK to Use Police Stations as Prisons under Emergency Measure

Police officers are seen in London, Britain, November 27, 2024. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
Police officers are seen in London, Britain, November 27, 2024. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy

Police cells will temporarily be used to hold prisoners in a stop-gap measure to cope with overcrowding in jails, the British government said on Tuesday.

The emergency action, dubbed "Operation Safeguard", allows inmates to be held in police cells when prisons are full, and was previously used from February 2023 to October last year, Reuters said.

The prison population in England and Wales has doubled in the last 30 years, according to official data, leading to overcrowding as new places have failed to keep pace with demand. Justice systems in Scotland and Northern Ireland are run separately.

In a statement to parliament, Shabana Mahmood said the prison system was operating at more than 99% occupancy.

January saw the highest average monthly prison population growth in almost two years, as part of a rising trend in the last three months that "has only just begun to slow", she added.

"Given the recent increase in demand, it is necessary, and prudent, for me to temporarily reactivate Operation Safeguard to better manage the flow of offenders into the prison estate," Mahmood said.

According to the World Prison Brief database, imprisonment rates in England and Wales are higher than in other major European countries, with 141 detainees per 100,000 population, against 120 in France, 117 in Spain, 105 in Italy and 68 in Germany.