Posted on 11/06/2005 9:40:51 AM PST by DumpsterDiver
LOS ANGELES - A Jewish Defense League activist imprisoned for his role in an alleged plot to bomb a California mosque and the office of a Lebanese-American congressman was killed at a federal prison in Phoenix.
Earl Krugel, 62, of Reseda, who was sentenced in September to 20 years in prison in a plea bargain, was killed Friday in what his wife said she was told was an assault by another inmate, who hit him from behind with a concrete block. "Earl never saw it happening," Lola Krugel said. "He was exercising."
Krugel's sister, Linda Krugel said her brother had been at the medium-security prison for three days.
"He was killed in cold blood ... this is disgusting," she said late Saturday.
Federal authorities have opened a homicide investigation, said Richard Murray, an FBI special agent in Phoenix. He declined to make public any other details.
Krugel, a former dental assistant from Reseda, and late JDL leader Irv Rubin were arrested in 2001 and charged with conspiring to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City and a field office of Rep. Darrell E. Issa, R-Vista, who is Lebanese-American.
Rubin died in 2002 at age 57 from injuries sustained in what authorities said was a jailhouse suicide attempt. Authorities said he slashed his throat with a razor and fell about 15 feet off a balcony while in jail awaiting trial.
Krugel pleaded guilty in 2003 to one count of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of worshippers at the mosque and one count of carrying an explosive device in connection with a conspiracy to impede or injure an office of the United States.
Despite the plea - which at one point prosecutors had vacated - and statements by Krugel that he was a changed man, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald S.W. Lew sentenced him in September to a 20-year prison sentence, the maximum allowed under the guilty plea.
The reasons for the collapse of the initial plea agreement were sealed, despite a lawsuit by news organizations, including The Associated Press, to make the details public.
During the case, Krugel's lawyers noted that prosecutors were angered that his client withheld for several months the names of four people allegedly connected to the 1985 murder case of Alex Odeh, the western regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Several former JDL members were suspected in the case, but no one was ever charged.
On Saturday, Krugel's wife maintained her husband's imprisonment was tied to Odeh.
"Earl did not deserve what he got. It was all political," she said. "It was all about Alex Odeh and my husband did not know anything about Alex Odeh. I'm devastated and I'm shocked that the system allowed this to happen."
Krugel's wife said she last spoke with her husband on Thursday and he was still adjusting to prison life.
"He was supposed to call me on Friday morning," she said. When I didn't hear from him, I felt something was not right."
The Jewish Defense League was founded in 1968 by Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane advocated the forcible removal of Arabs from Israel. He was assassinated in 1990 in New York.
A real whodunit. (So, who done it?)
A convert to TROP?
Probably Brotherhood of Muslum gang in Prison
YOU THINK????
Whatever else, the widow should sue. The only thing govt./feds pay attention to is money.
Authorities said he slashed his throat with a razor and fell about 15 feet off a balcony while in jail awaiting trial......YEAH,SURE...thats how everyone commits suicide in prison lol
Probably Brotherhood of Muslum gang in Prison
YOU THINK????
Hmmm, I'll need some time to mull that one over. ;^)
It was a standard Middle East suicide.
He would have shot himself in the head three times if he could have laid his hands on a firearm. I'm surprised he wasn't able to do that ...
I think a lawsuit may be warranted in this case. Putting this guy in with the general population (e.g., lots of Muslim converts) was irresponsible and akin to a death sentence. While he was a criminal, he didn't deserve to die.
I agree. They sentenced him to death.
They deal pretty harshly with Jewish "extremists" (who did not harm anyone actually). I only hope they show similar resolve when dealing with Islamic terrorists with blood on their hands...
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