Colombia asks Israel to extradite mercenary convicted of training drug assassins

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Colombia asks Israel to extradite mercenary convicted of training drug assassins
FRANK BAJAK

Associated Press

5:05 p.m. EST, January 27, 2011

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia asked Israel on Thursday to extradite former Israeli army Lt. Col. Yair Klein, who a Colombian court has convicted and sentenced in absentia to nearly 11 years in prison for training drug-traffickers' assassins in the late 1980s.

"The evidence (against Klein) is conclusive," Interior Minister German Vargas told a news conference, saying the formal request had been made in Tel Aviv by Colombia's embassy there. "For the Colombian government it is essential that this sentence is completed and that this citizen clarify his participation in the organization and training of these groups."

A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Bogota said it would have no comment on the extradition request. Colombia lacks an extradition treaty with Israel.

~snip~
He has threatened to reveal the names of senior Colombian officials he says invited him to organize military training in 1988-89 for what he said he understood to be peasants who were creating self-defense units to protect themselves against leftist rebel extortion and kidnapping.

Read more: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-colombia-yair-klein,0,2444876.story