It appears that nothing can legally be done to prevent the re-entry to Israel in a few months of convicted murderer Eli Cohen. He cannot be incarcerated, retried or even denied parental rights.

What Cohen, a dual Israeli-Australian citizen, did to his ex-wife, the mother of his children, in Thailand in 2004 is the stuff of horror movies.

He lured Carol Amsalem to Bangkok, tortured her with acid and a hot iron, gruesomely butchered her, dismembered her, stuffed some of her hideously mutilated remains in a suitcase and dumped them. Not all the remains were recovered.

This was not a crime of passion but a premeditated atrocity.

Cohen was convicted and sentenced to 150 years. Prison conditions in Thailand are notoriously harsh, yet, occasionally, especially on royal birthdays, the king grants pardons.

As a result of the latest round of reprieves, Cohen is to be set loose in mid-May.

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The only move that could be taken against Cohen would be to revoke his parental rights, but that would hinge on new legislation. A released felon, no matter how heinous his crime, cannot now be prevented from raising his children, much less from seeing them.

This is a dreadful legal loophole that ought to be plugged, although even the swiftest efforts in that direction are unlikely to be of much use in this shameful case.

This is a tragedy not of our making, but it is a glaring instance where our intuitive sense of right and wrong and the dry letter of the law do not mesh.

The Jerusalem Post


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