Rabbi Eliezer Berland, who left Israel fleeing accusations of sex crimes, is being extradited back to the Holy Land from Holland, Israel Radio reported.
Rabbi Berland, 77, was accused by several women and one minor of sexually assaulting them.
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Berland, a member of the Breslav Hasidic movement, is considered the leader of the Shuvu Bonim community in Israel, with an estimated few hundred followers. At the time, he claimed he was being persecuted in Israel because of his support for Palestinian statehood.
Berland was arrested in September during a layover at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, on his way from South Africa to the Ukraine. Since running away from his accusers in Israel in 2012, the rabbi has visited the U.S., Morocco, Zimbabwe and Switzerland, according to JTA.
Several dozen of Berland’s followers have settled in the Netherlands to be near their rebbe.
Now they can come home.
