In Azen v. State of Israel, the Supreme Court heard the appeal of a person who had been declared extraditable to France for offences of stealing by an agent and fraud, committed, according to the request for extradition, in France. One of the pleas raised against the decision of the District Court, in which Azen was declared extraditable, was that the specialty limitation was not guaranteed in the Extradition Treaty between Israel and France, as required by sec. 17 (a) of the Israeli Extradition Law, 1954. This section states unequivocally that —

whereas in art. 17 of the said Treaty, specialty is guaranteed in the following words:

i.e. under the Treaty, the specialty limitation is restricted, from the procedural point of view, to those processes involving physical, personal enforcement against the subject of extradition—he will not be “summoned” for interrogation, nor judged “in his presence”, nor “detained”; the Extradition Law, however, contains no such restriction, with the exception of detention which, by its very nature, requires physical enforcement.

On June 28, 1978, the Israeli Knesset passed a Law which changed the age of criminal responsibility of juveniles, raising the threshold from 9 years of age to 13 years of age. This Law, known as the Penal Law (Amendment no. 3) 1978, is popularly called the “Yitzhaki Law”, after MK Yitzhak Yitzhaki (Likud) who initiated the Law.

From a practical point of view, the Amendment means that police interrogators may not interrogate minors under the age of 13, nor may they open criminal files on such minors or prosecute them. When and if the police are confronted with juveniles suspected of delinquent behaviour the police may take their testimony, and may refer them to the welfare officers, who, operating by virtue of the Youth (Care and Supervision) Law, 1960, are authorized to decide whether the minor requires care, and if so, the kind of care he is to receive.