[padre35]

And that “mystery” witness was so convincing that no less then 5 eyewitnesses were disregarded, that is no small thing.

I can recall some of those witnesses testifying in the original trial, they were convinced..and apparently, they were dead wrong.

That is one of the perils of eyewitness testimony that is 60 years old, if the guy is guilty he should face Justice, but if innocent, what then?

[mnehring]

The eyewitness weren’t ‘disregarded’, many had already died. That’s why Israel’s Supreme court cited evidence spoilage (legal term not derogatory) as the main reason for overturning the one conviction.

Luckily, it seems the new evidence is documentary, plus now we know that he did go by the name on the ID when he applied for his US visa, so that defense is out the window and actually is another piece against him.

[Western Phil]

I understand he was convicted as being Ivan the Terrible on evidence supplied by the Soviets. He was an expatriate of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union forever harassed any expatriate they could (see Trotsky). After the fall of the Soviet Union evidence was found in the KGB archives which seemed to prove to the Israelis that this fellow was the wrong man.

If this new documentary evidence at any time passed through Soviet handling it is very suspect.