Shuvu Bonim leader and fugitive rabbi Rabbi Eliezer Berland has been released on bail for Yom Kippur, a Netherlands court announced Wednesday.
Three weeks ago, Berland was arrested at the airport in Amsterdam. The State of Israel immediately put in for an extradition request and asked that bail be revoked. The High Court heard the appeal filed by the State of Israel against the bail decision, but chose to release him for the holiday. The decision regarding Rabbi Berland's extradition back to Israel will be finalized in two weeks.
Berland, the head of the Shuvu Bonim Yeshiva, fled Israel two years ago due to the serious suspicions of sexual assault and abuse that arose against him. He went to Morocco, but was later ordered to leave by the Moroccan King, following an article published in one of the major newspapers there. That article described in extensive detail the allegations against him and the reason he brought s many families with him to Morocco.
For weeks, his followers tried to find another country that has no extradition treaty with Israel and the die was cast for Zimbabwe in Africa. A short time later, he was forced to flee again and wound up in Johannesburg. Now after being detained in Holland, his travels appear to be at their end, and he will most likely be ordered back to Israel.