Israeli Special Forces stormed a prison and killed a convicted murderer who got hold of a jailer’s weapon, and shot three guards before barricading himself inside the prison compound.  How the prisoner came to be jailed in Israel is an unusual tale of quirks in Israel’s international relations.

Authorities identified the prisoner as 34-year old Samuel Sheinbein.  He was an American who was just 17-years-old in 1997 when he killed and dismembered a man in the garage of an empty house in the suburbs outside Washington, DC.

When authorities found the body, Sheinbein fled to Israel with the help of his father.  Since his father held Israeli citizenship, and by virtue of being Jewish, he was automatically entitled to full citizenship under Israel’s “Law of Return”.   But at the time, Israeli law forbade extraditing criminals back to countries in which the penalties are harsher than Israel’s, and that set off a dispute with the US.  Lawmakers in Washington threatened to cut off aid, and an embarrassed Israel changed its law for future cases.

In an Israeli court in 1999, Sheinbein admitted to strangling, bludgeoning, and dismembering the victim and was sentenced to 24 years in prison.  A codefendant in America had already committed suicide.  Sheinbein’s father is, in effect, grounded in Israel.  He could be extradited to the US to face obstruction charges if he ever tries to travel to another country.

And it doesn’t stop there.  Earlier this month, convicted murderer Samuel Sheinbein was granted a furlough from prison.  The first thing he did was drive to Ramla and attempted to steal a gun, but was quickly apprehended.

Israeli authorities are investigating how he managed to get his hands on a firearm inside a prison.