US requests extradition to Jordan for Palestinian behind 2001 terror attack

For the first time, the US is requesting the extradition of a Palestinian terrorist who murdered Americans and Israelis in a Jerusalem bomb attack.

The US Department of Justice is in the process of announcing its first-ever extradition request of a Palestinian woman behind a 2001 terror attack in Jerusalem that resulted in Israeli and American deaths.

The extradition request will call on Jordan to hand over Hamas terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, who had previously been jailed by Israel for her connection to the Sbarro pizza restaurant terror attack in Jerusalem in August 2001, but was released by Israel as part of the controversial 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.

The 2001 attack killed 15 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman, and wounded 130.

Tamimi is currently a TV host in Jordan where she has interviewed other Hamas terrorists and has bragged about her involvement in the murder of other Israelis and the Palestinian resistance against Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The move by the Justice Department breaks with past policy on such terror-related cases. Prior to the Trump administration, legal cases against such terrorists were either criminal proceedings in Israeli courts or civil proceedings brought by family members in U.S. courts.

Shurat HaDin head Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, whose firm is representing the family of victim Chana Nachenberg, who currently still in a coma from the attack, welcomed the move by the Justice Department.

“We are glad that the U.S. Department of Justice has decided to move forward against this notorious mass murderer,” Darshan-Leitner said. “We have been requesting for a long time that this unrepentant Palestinian terrorist be rearrested, extradited and prosecuted by American law enforcement officials.”

By: JNS.org