- LOS ANGELES (Reuters)
-- A militant Jewish activist must stand trial after all over a 2001 plot
to bomb a Los Angeles area mosque and other Muslim targets after a judge
on Monday voided a plea deal.
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- Earl Krugel, 61, a member of the Jewish Defense League,
had previously agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to violate the civil
rights of worshipers at the mosque and to a weapons charge linked to explosives
that prosecutors said were meant for the Los Angeles office of Lebanese-American
Congressman Darrell Issa. The bomb plot was never carried out.
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- Krugel and the Jewish Defense League chairman Irv Rubin
were charged in December 2001 with conspiracy to destroy the mosque but
Rubin committed suicide in jail a year later while awaiting trial.
-
- Krugel later agreed to plead guilty and was expecting
to be sentenced on Monday to 10-20 years in prison. But a federal court
judge in Los Angeles said Krugel had breached the plea agreement. The judge
did not give details.
-
- The judge set a November trial date for Krugel, saying
he would now be tried as well on counts of attempted arson, possessing
a destructive device and soliciting someone to commit a crime - charges
which effectively carry a life sentence.
-
- According to court documents, Krugel and Rubin said they
targeted Issa because he is an Arab-American and they believed Arabs needed
a "wake-up call".
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- The Jewish Defense League was founded in 1968 by Rabbi
Meir Kahane, who before his assassination in New York in 1990 advocated
the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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