SOUTH AFRICA
Arutz Sheva (Israel)
By Chaim Levi, Ari Yashar
First Publish: 8/14/2014
South African police have confirmed that they nearly nabbed the fugitive “Shuvu Banim” Hassidic leader Rabbi Eliezer Berland on Sunday, and further revealed that an international arrest warrant has been issued against him.
Plainclothes police were hiding among attendees at a wedding ceremony Berland was preparing for one of his followers. Local hassidim hid the rabbi at the last moment before police arrested him, a source close to the sect told Arutz Sheva.
“We do confirm that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (also known as the Hawks) is working with the Israeli government to track Rabbi (Berland),” Captain Paul Ramaloko, National Spokesperson for the Hawks, told the South African Jewish Report on Wednesday.
Ramaloko elaborated that Berland “is a wanted person in Israel. An international warrant of arrest has been issued against him, and his name has been red flagged.”
Berland’s followers claim that the fugitive rabbi, who is on the run after facing sexual assault charges in Israel, is legally allowed to stay in Johannesburg, and one follower said “from the first moment we got here, senior figures in the Jewish community were trying to exile the Rabbi.”
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