(JTA) — Brazilian police arrested an Israeli fugitive who was convicted of killing a Palestinian man in the West Bank in 2004.
The convict was identified in a report Thursday by the Estado news agency as Y.E. — initials that match those of Yehosha Elitzur, 44, who in 2005 disappeared from his home in the West Bank settlement of Itamar, shortly before an Israeli district court sentenced him to 20 years in prison for manslaughter.
Elitzur was released to house arrest until his sentencing and required to post a bail sum equivalent to $7,000.
Eliztur killed a Palestinian taxi driver, Sa’al Eastiyah, near the Elon Moreh settlement with an M-16 assault rifle. A judge ruled he threatened the driver with the weapon before he fired multiple shots. The court issued an international warrant for Elitzur’s arrest with Interpol, which cooperated in Elitzur’s capture in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Thursday night, Estado reported.
According to the report, Brazil’s federal police located Elitzur in the Sao Paolo of Higienopolis, where many members of the city’s Jewish community are concentrated. The report said he entered Brazil on a false passport, complicating investigators’ attempt to ascertain how long he has resided in Brazil.
Israel and Brazil signed a mutual extradition agreement in 2009.
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