Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles Tuesday November 5, 2002 The Guardian

Irv Rubin, the leader of the Jewish Defence League, has tried to kill himself in jail while awaiting trial on charges of plotting to bomb Muslim targets in the US. Early reports from his family said that Mr Rubin had taken his life by slashing his throat but later official reports said he was still alive in hospital in Los Angeles.

Mr Rubin, aged 57, and a JDL colleague, Earl Krugel, aged 60, were arrested last December and charged with conspiring to blow up the Muslim Public Affairs Council in LA, the King Fahd mosque and the offices of the Arab-American politician Darrell Issa in San Clemente. Both men are pleading not guilty.

Mr Rubin was due to appear in court yesterday when news of the suicide attempt was announced. A spokesman for the US marshal's service said that Mr Rubin had been operated on after attempting to take his life and was recovering in hospital. Earlier, Mr Rubin's wife, Shelley, and son, Ari, had told the Associated Press they had heard from Mr Rubin's lawyers that he was dead after slashing his throat and jumping over a railing at a detention centre.

The information against Mr Rubin and Mr Krugel came from an FBI informant who was a JDL member and who claims that he was recruited by the two men to carry out the bombings. Mr Krugel is alleged to have said that Arabs "need a wake-up call". The prosecution case rests mainly on tape recordings made by the informant in conversation with Mr Rubin and Mr Krugel.

Mr Rubin has been the national chairman of the JDL since 1985. The organisation was formed by the New York rabbi Meher Kahane in 1968 and adopted the slogans of "For every Jew a .22" and "Keep Jews alive with a .45". Mr Rubin has been arrested more than 40 times and has fallen out with mainstream Jewish organisations and been denounced by Jewish leaders in the US as being unrepresentative and an embarrassment.

In 1985, Mr Rubin was named as a suspect in the murder of Alex Odeh, the regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, in Santa Ana, California. Mr Rubin denied involvement and was never charged although he celebrated the death. Lawyers for Mr Rubin say that he had been ill in hospital and had lost about three stone in weight. He was denied bail as a possible flight risk and faces life imprisonment if convicted.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

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