The government of Moldova has asked Israel several times in recent years to extradite a Moldovan-Israeli politician whom the United States has accused of corrupting Moldova’s political and economic institutions on behalf of Russia.
Moldova wants Jerusalem to extradite Ilan Shor (aka Șor), the 35-year-old oligarch-turned-politician who fled to Israel in 2019 after being convicted of fraud in connection with the alleged theft of $1 billion from local banks.
The initial extradition request was made in March 2020, according to Moldovan ambassador to Israel Alexandr Roitman. Subsequent requests were submitted in September and December 2021. Israel does not have an extradition treaty with Moldova, which means Israel has no legal obligation to return Shor.
The two countries’ justice ministries have “opened a dialogue on this issue,” Roitman told , He described Shor as “trying to destabilize the political situation” in Moldova. “It is our hope that this request will be treated expeditiously,” he said. He declined to answer directly when asked if he was disappointed by Israel’s apparent lack of action.
Born in Tel Aviv to Moldovan immigrants who returned to their homeland when he was a toddler, Shor has been a major economic and political force in the former Soviet republic of some 3 million people.
His arrest in 2015 for money laundering and embezzlement was related to the 2014 theft of $1 billion from three Moldovan banks. It was the start of a major political and legal saga that still haunts the country.
Shor was convicted of fraud in 2017. However, he managed to delay a seven-and-a-half year prison sentence after appealing his conviction and running for political office. In 2015 he became mayor of one of Moldova’s largest cities, Orehi. His next move was to establish a new political party, Shor, and run for parliament in February 2019. He became a lawmaker as his party won seven seats.
However, that election also led to the appointment of pro-Western politician Maia Sandu as Moldova’s prime minister.
Roitman said Shor fled right after his country’s new, pro-Western parliament had been sworn in, and that there had been no time for the incoming government to take any action regarding his parliamentary status.
Shor has been accused by both the Moldovan and U.S. governments of leading a political campaign, from the safe haven of Israel, against the government in Chișinău and in favor of pro-Russian forces in Moldovan politics.
The New York Times reported last month that Shor’s party was behind a wave of demonstrations against Sandu, who is now Moldova’s president. He was described as “working to turn an energy crisis into a political crisis that threatens the government.”
The article added that Shor was directing the protests against Sandu “from his refuge in Israel,” and that he “finances the demonstrations and speaks by video link to each gathering chanting for Ms. Sandu’s removal.”
