Justice for Malki’s killer?
Roth noted there was no sign yet of any US figure "publicly demanding Jordan do what the treaty requires".
Arnold Roth, father of Australian girl Malki Roth, 15, who was killed when Palestinian terrorists bombed a Jerusalem pizzeria in 2001, has expressed scepticism over claims by Hamas that Jordan is on the verge of extraditing one of the convicted masterminds to the US.
The attack, during the Second Intifada, claimed the lives of 16 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman, and wounded 130.
Terrorist Ahlam Tamimi had selected the Sbarro pizzeria targeted by her and another bomber. Her accomplice was killed but Tamimi fled, later expressing glee at the rising death toll.
Although sentenced in Israel to 16 consecutive life terms, she was freed in a 2011 prisoner exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from Hamas. She was later feted as a media celebrity in Jordan.
In the US, she faces charges over the deaths of two Americans – including Malki, who through her mother Frimet held dual US-Australian citizenship.
An extradition request was issued in 2017 but for years, the US has maintained Jordan had not ratified its extradition treaty. However, in 2019, Roth learned that Jordan had ratified the treaty in 1995.
Under US freedom-of-information laws, Roth even received a copy of a letter by Jordan’s late monarch King Hussein to the US State Department confirming that fact.
The FBI has placed a $US5 million bounty on Tamimi and has her on its “most-wanted” list.
Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV channel reported on Monday that Jordan is seeking to deport Tamimi. However, a Times Of Israel report stated it was unclear why Hamas would make that claim.
From his home in Jerusalem, former Melburnian Roth told The AJN this week he is dubious about any imminent extradition moves. “The reports continue to be vague, self-contradictory and somewhat misleading. So far, there’s no sign Jordan is extraditing. And anything other than extraditing – which by definition means into the arms of the waiting US Department of Justice – points to one more attempt by Jordan to evade criticism from its own vast terror-supporting sector and to breach its treaty obligation to the US. It’s been content to do both for years.”
Roth also noted there was no sign yet of any US figure “publicly demanding Jordan do what the treaty requires”.
“That of course has been the heart of the problem all these years. But ‘no sign’ doesn’t mean no action. Plainly things are moving in Washington, but there’s no basis at this moment to think they’re moving in the direction of Tamimi being brought to justice.”
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