ANT KATZ

In an official media statement from the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) from Pretoria this afternoon, several key issues which the Hawks were not prepared to, or able to divulge this morning have come to light.

The statement read as follows:

A Jewish rabbi who has been on the wanted list for four counts of indecent assault which he allegedly committed in Israel, has been arrested by the Hawks’ Interpol members on Thursday.

The 80-year-old-rabbi was arrested in Sunninghill, Johannesburg. He complained that he (was) not feeling well and was taken to hospital, where he is under police guard.

He will appear before the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on April 14, 2016.

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On Rabbi Berland’s defence

JR Online has been collaborating with the Dutch daily newspaper NRC’s editor Danielle Pinedo since November and sharing information. Read our translated version of her comprehensive and revealing interview with Berland’s Dutch lawyer, Louis de Leon, which we published on the same day as NRC.

Pinedo, who happens to be Jewish, spoke to Rabbi Berland’s Israeli attorney, Sharon Nahari, this morning. Nahari told her that his client would be bringing five witnesses to court next Thursday to question the veracity of the Israeli charges.

While this strategy was also used in the Dutch courts last year, it did not prevail in the end and an extradition order was eventually issued, and an appeal denied.

That led to Rav Berland’s flight back to South Africa.

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Read it first on JR Online:

• 7 April on JR Online: HAS BERLAND BEEN ARRESTED?
• 8 April on JR Online: BERLAND HAS BEEN ARRESTED!