An Israeli who was sentenced to life in prison for dismembering his ex-wife and dumping her body in the Chao Phraya River has returned to his home country after receiving a royal pardon from His Majesty the King.
This file photo shows Eli Cohen arriving at court in Bangkok in 2004. Cohen was sentenced to life imprisonment for knifing his wife and dismembering her body, but has been released from prison, after being given a royal pardon. (AP Photo)
Eli Cohen flew into Israel on Thursday after serving eight years of a 150-year sentence for the murder of his ex-wife, 26-year-old Carol Cohen.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Cohen immediately boarded a connecting flight to another location when he landed in Israel, because he was afraid of being rearrested.
But Israel’s Justice Ministry said it has no grounds to try Cohen, since he was convicted and served prison time in Thailand.
In Feb 2004, shortly after moving to Thailand, Cohen, then aged 36, bought a one-way ticket for his ex-wife to fly to Bangkok. The pair were divorced, but he said he missed her and wanted to see her.
Within 24 hours of her arrival, he murdered her in his hotel room, dismembered her and stuffed her body into a suitcase, which he threw in the river.
Cohen initially denied murdering his ex-wife. But police immediately suspected he had killed her, after finding parts of her body scattered around Bangkok’s canals. He eventually pleaded guilty, but denied the murder was premeditated.
The lawyer representing the family of the victim said neither the Israeli or Thai government had contacted them to warn them that Cohen would be returning to the country.
Dikla Tutian-Zaid said the family heard about his return through the media – the same way they learned that he would be pardoned six months ago, adding that the family’s attempts to have the royal pardon retracted and to prevent Cohen from returning to Israel had received no help from Israeli authorities.
“No official from any government agency informed the family that the murderer was coming home,” she said. “It is only fitting that the family have some sort of notice so that they can prepare for this.”
Tutian-Zaid said the family is “in great pain”. “The pain is double because they feel there is no justice; that he sat in prison for just a few years and can now go on with his life as though he never did anything,” she said.
Carol’s mother, Rivka Amsalem, declined to comment on the news. Last year, when the pardon was announced, Amsalem told the Jerusalem Post: “How could it be that someone who murders his ex-wife in such a brutal and terrible way, and then cuts her up and throws her into a river, can be pardoned?”
Cohen’s royal pardon sparked controversy when it was announced, following reports that Israel’s then-interior minister Eli Yishai had helped secure the pardon.
The minister’s office denied the allegations, but admitted that he had helped to repatriate Israelis serving drug sentences in Thailand, because of harsh prison conditions.
“The minister has never knowingly worked for the sake of releasing a murderer, and if it turns out he was involved in such instances, it was a mistake and the instance must be checked. The minister believes that the place of a murderer, any murderer, is in prison for the rest of their lives,” a statement said at the time.