perverted Hasidic rabbi who sexually abused his daughter throughout her adolescence could get 10 years knocked off his sentence under terms of an appeals court decision this morning.
Israel Weingarten was improperly convicted on one count involving incest that occurred during a trip from Belgium to Israel, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled.
The unanimous decree says that citizens can't be found guilty in America for crimes committed overseas unless there's a "territorial nexus to the United States."
The three-judge panel upheld other convictions covering abuse that took place during travel from Brooklyn to Belgium, and from Israel to Brooklyn.
Weingarten, a member of the Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, was sentenced to 30 years in the slammer for traveling across international borders in order to molest the girl, the second-oldest of his eight kids.
The now-grown woman tearfully testified against Weingarten during a 2009 Brooklyn federal court trial at which he acted as his own lawyer and angrily cross-examined her on the witness stand.
A spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office said prosecutors "will review the Second Circuit's decision and consider our options."
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