Court adjourns Adelaide rabbi’s case
A CASE involving criminal charges against Adelaide's Rabbi Yossi Engel and his wife Rebbetzin Chana Engel was adjourned in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday.
PETER KOHN
A CASE involving criminal charges against Adelaide’s Rabbi Yossi Engel and his wife Rebbetzin Chana Engel has been adjourned to October 28.
In a brief appearance at Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday, lawyer Ron Bellman sought an adjournment for the Engels, who were not present in court.
He said the rabbi’s legal counsel had not had sufficient opportunity to view key documents in the prosecution’s case against him.
Magistrate Grantley Harris accepted Bellman’s application for more time to review the prosecution’s documents on behalf of the Engels, and adjourned the case until October 28.
In what is almost certainly the first time an Australian rabbi has faced criminal charges, Rabbi Engel faces 39 counts of dishonestly dealing with documents, as set out in South Australia’s crime statutes.
Rebbetzin Engel was jointly charged on the same number of counts. No pleas have been entered by either of the defendants.
Rabbi Engel was the Adelaide Hebrew Congregation’s rabbi from 1998 until 2006.