![Arrest [illustrative] 370 (photo credit: Nir Elias/Reuters)](https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/q_auto/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_537,w_822/215677 "Arrest [illustrative] 370")
The State Attorney’s Office on Monday filed a petition with the Jerusalem District Court seeking to extradite to the United States a US citizen who was arrested for sexual assault.
The American man, whose identity is blocked by court order, was arrested on Sunday in the South. He has been illegally residing in Israel for a decade. He allegedly sexually assaulted two of his female relatives at the family’s home in Brooklyn, New York, between 1996 and 2004 when the complainants were young girls.
In October 2010, one of the relatives reported the alleged abuse, and the New York Police Department opened an investigation.
At that time, the man’s wife drove him to JFK International Airport in New York, from where he flew to Israel. Three months later, his tourist visa expired. Since then, the man has been illegally residing in Israel.
The authorities have been searching for him since mid-2015 after the US government filed for extradition.
The case is being handled by attorney Ruti Fausner of the State Attorney’s Office International Department in collaboration with the Israel Police and Interpol.