Rabbi's refusal to testify could send him back to jail

[bemildred]

Two years ago, Rabbi Moshe Zigelman went to prison rather than testify against fellow Jews in a federal tax-evasion case and receive a lesser punishment.

Now, federal prosecutors are threatening him with a return to jail unless the 64-year-old devout Hasid agrees to testify before a grand jury regarding the federal government's ongoing probe of tax evasion in his Orthodox Jewish sect. On Wednesday, they will ask a judge to order him to testify or be found in contempt.

His attorney says Zigelman, a teacher of scripture and son of Holocaust survivors, will again refuse, citing his religious principles.

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Zigelman was arrested in 2007 for his part in a decade-long enterprise through which wealthy donors made tens of millions of dollars in contributions to Spinka, a Brooklyn-based Hasidic sect, only to have most of the money refunded through an underground money-transfer network. The donors received large tax breaks on the bogus amounts; Spinka and related charities profited through the small portion of the sums they kept.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rabbi-testimony-20110907,0,3564312.story

[madmom]

1. So his "religion" says it's ok to aid and abet a crime?

[bemildred]

2. It's tax fraud, is what it is, but I do give him some credit for not cutting a deal.

As far as his "religious beliefs", you gotta say something in these situations. I might develop some religious beliefs too if I was in his situation.

[dennis4868]

3. the jewish law he relies

on not to testify no longer applies...it did when Jewish people were treated unfairly and there were no courts of justice...but then again, I am no Jewish law expert :-)