JERUSALEM, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Israel's high court should order the government to release evidence sought by a U.S. court over charges a Chinese bank funded terrorism, a rights group says.
The petition alleges Justice Minister Tzipi Livni has refused for six months to turn over to the United States testimony that purportedly shows the state-owned Bank of China was involved in laundering money that funded terror attacks on Israel, Israeli broadcaster Arutz Sheva reported Monday.
Shurat Hadin, or Israeli Law Center, filed the petition as Israel is strengthening alliances with China, recently challenging U.S. restrictions on Israel's sale of military equipment to the communist country.
"The state of Israel has sacrificed the terror victims on the Chinese altar, and now it is ready to sacrifice its relations with the American judicial system on the same altar," charged Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, head of Shurat Hadin.
The law center is handling the case against the Bank of China, which is accused of laundering millions of dollars for organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which conducted deadly terror attacks in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and several other Israeli cities in 2006 and 2007.
The petition says in the six months since the testimony was requested, Livni has not supplied a single document to the U.S. court.
Israel initially had supplied information in the case.
