No reconsideration of Rubashkin case

Friday, March 12, 2010 | by

The Department of Justice won’t intervene in the case of convicted kosher meat executive Rabbi Sholom Rubashkin, des-pite a plea from several Orthodox rabbis.

  In a letter last week, the director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys said the case involving Rubashkin case had been “fully litigated” and there was nothing more to be done.

“Mr. Rubashkin has fully litigated the issue of whether detention pending sentencing is appropriate,” H. Marshall Jarrett wrote. “The district court and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals have determined that Mr. Rubashkin is a flight risk.”

Rubashkin, the former manager of the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa, was convicted of 86 counts of financial fraud last November and ordered held pending sentencing.  In January, a coalition of rabbis wrote to the attorney general asking for reconsideration of the case, arguing that his release is a humanitarian issue. — jta