The Israeli-born Moldovan politician Ilan Shor returned to his native country in 2019. Meanwhile in Moldova, he was sentenced to 15 years in jail in the infamous 2014 bank fraud case and now he is also under U.S, UK and EU sanctions for his pro-Russian activity amid the Ukraine war. Chisinau has sought his extradition, but to no avail so far. According to Israeli journalist Amir Tibon, Israel is so reluctant to extradite its own citizens for two main reasons: financial and diplomatic.
The financial motive is that oligarchs bring a lot of money, invest massively in real estate, for example, while the diplomatic one is that Israel does not feel any pressure from the outside to extradite them or take any other punitive measures.
In an interview with Radio Free Europe, the journalist said that if there was any serious pressure from the United States or some important countries in the European Union, the Israeli government might react differently.
Amir Tibon is a diplomatic affairs editor at the opposition daily Haaretz, Israel’s oldest newspaper, founded in 1918, long before the creation of the state. A left-wing publication, Haaretz has an edition in Hebrew and one in English, distributed together with the American daily New York Times.
“Let’s take the case of Ilan Shor. It illustrates the situation very well. He is the target of American sanctions, he is seen with very critical eyes by many important European countries and yet he can use Israel as a safe haven, from where he can operate his campaign to destabilize Moldova. So far, however, I have not heard that the United States or the EU criticize this situation. And then Israel has no reason to change its strategy”, Amir Tibon told Radio Free Europe.
In 2017, was convicted for the first time in the bank fraud case, getting 7 and a half years in jail, but he didn’t serve a single day thanks to an appeal that was constantly protracted. After the government changed in 2019, the politician fled Moldova. Even so, he was able to secure a new MP term in the 2021 snap election. The MP seat was eventually taken from Shor after Parliament took note of the 13 April 2023 appellate court ruling that sentenced him to 15 years in jail, finding him guilty of fraud and money laundering in particularly large amounts. The politician was ordered to return 5.2 billion lei ($295 million). Later, Shor’s eponymous party was declared unconstitutional, with its core members barred from running in the next election.
