Last update - 00:00 03/09/2007
Attorneys of Heftsiba CEO Yona demand to meet with their client
By Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondent
VERONA - Attorneys for Heftsiba CEO Boaz Yona, arrested in Italy on Thursday, are scheduled to appear before the District Court in Venice today with an urgent request that they be allowed to meet with their client.
Since his arrest in a hotel near Verona, attorney Yair Golan and his Italian colleague, Daniela De Voan, have been unable to meet with Yona.
Only an Israeli consul has met with Yona since his arrest; he reported Yona is in good condition.
One reason for the delay is that Yona's arrest took place prior to the weekend and Italian law requires that a judge approve a visit.
Yona, who has been on the run from Israeli authorities since early in August after the collapse of Heftsiba, a property development firm, was transferred yesterday from the the Verona jail to a holding center in Venice. He is expected to remain there until he is extradited to Israel.
The court proceedings this morning are primarily meant to ensure that the arrest warrant issued in Israel and distributed through Interpol is legal, binding and in accordance with the treaty agreements to which both Israel and Italy are signatories. Officially, Israeli authorities have not issued a request to their Italian counterparts for Yona's extradition.
Israel's extradition request is expected within days, and it will be backed with evidence from the police investigation into the Heftsiba collapse and the suspicions against Yona.
In today's proceedings, the Italian District Court judge is expected to remand Yona in custody. According to Italian law, it is possible to remand a suspect in custody for up to 30 days.
Yona is not expected to fight the extradition proceedings, attorney Golan said during the weekend, although it is possible that his client has changed his mind in the past three days.
However, another possible obstacle to Yona's extradition was raised: it is possible that the Italian police will want to investigate whether Yona violated any Italian laws. If so, only then will the extradition process begin.
Yona's wife, Tamar, and three children, are still living in a home near Verona, where they have stayed since fleeing Israel a month ago.
Attorney Yitzhak Ben-Menahem, Tamar Yona's attorney, expressed his outrage yesterday at reports claiming that police were able to locate Boaz Yona through the telephone interviews his client gave to Israeli media.
"She was presented as being a liar, but she is sticking to her version of events, that after her husband was declared a fugitive, he left her and disappeared and contacted her again only on the day he was arrested," Ben-Menahem said.
Tamar Yona's attorney also said that the arrest was made possible because someone who knew where Boaz Yona was hiding let it slip - and not because his client spoke on the telephone.