AWOL U.S. officer leaves Israel to face charges

TEL AVIV -- A senior U.S. intelligence officer who entered Israel and applied for citizenship has left for the United States to stand trial.

Police said Lt. Col. Jeremiah Mattysse agreed to voluntarily return to the United States to face a military tribunal on charges of being absent without leave and conduct unbecoming of an officer. Police said he left Tuesday on a flight for Newark, N.J.

But Mattysse's attorney, Yoram Sheftel, said his client was kept incommunicado and then forced on the plane by Israeli and U.S. agents.

Earlier, Mattysse denied assertions by his so-called Israeli girlfriend that he had brought with him classified information. "I'm not a spy," Matysse said. "I haven't given classified information to anybody."

The officer was found on Monday in the southern Israeli town of Mitzpeh Ramon and brought to the Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tikvah for police questioning. During an interrogation on Tuesday, police sources said, Mattysse agreed to return voluntarily to the United States.

Israeli officials said they could not legally extradite Mattysse to the United States because the U.S. crimes with which he was charged did not fall under the extradition treaty between Jerusalem and Washington. Mattysse converted to Judaism a decade ago and was a follower of the Habad hasidic sect.

Officials insisted that Mattysse, 49, was not under arrest but wanted by U.S. authorities for failing to return to his base in Camp Bullis, Texas. Mattysse was transferred in February from his post as commander of the Army Reserve Intelligence Support Center at Camp Bullis to the 90th Reserve Support Group in San Antonio amid an investigation that he had an extramarital affair.

An opposition parliamentarian, Michael Kleiner, had called on Israeli authorities to release Mattysse, "Hundreds of Israeli soldiers are in the United States who fled the army, no one arrested them," Kleiner said.

Israeli officials had also dismissed the suggestion that Mattysse be exchanged for imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. "I don't think anyone is dealing with that at the moment," Israeli deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said.