Unfinished business for Israeli spies making quick exit

10.00am

Two Israeli spies jailed on passport charges were due to leave the country today with unfinished legal business.

Eli Cara and Uri Kelman have each paid the $50,000 they were ordered to donate to the Cerebral Palsy Society to the court but have appealed their convictions after being jailed in July for six months.

However, the society had yet to receive the funds from the court, although Kelman's lawyer, Grant Illingworth, said they would not ask for it back if they won their appeal.

The appeal has yet to be heard and is likely to go ahead without the two men being in the country. They are due to be released today after serving half their six-month sentences.

Mr Illingworth said today the appeal was being pursued so the pair would not have a conviction against their names for the rest of their lives.

He said a conviction on passport charges could seriously affect future travel.

"It has an effect on a number of different areas, especially a conviction of the particular type that is involved in this case."

He said their return to Israel would not affect their appeal.

A date for the appeal hearing had yet to be decided.

Mr Illingworth said if the appeal had been given urgent status it might have been heard about now but it would have made no difference to the prison status of the two men.

The pair are due to be released from Mt Eden Prison after serving half of their sentences, although nothing official has been said about their release.

The Government is still waiting for a formal apology from Israel over the incident.

Mr Illingworth said if they won their appeal, the $100,000 they were ordered to pay to the Cerebral Palsy Society as part of their sentence would not be retrieved.

It had been paid in to the court immediately after the sentencing and no attempt would be made to get it back.

Mr Illingworth said the payment of the money to the society was not dependent on the appeal outcome.

"As far as I am concerned the money should have gone to the Cerebral Palsy Society.

"We have not requested that that should be delayed pending the appeal and as far as we are concerned that money is payable to the Cerebral Palsy Society, despite the fact that an appeal has been lodged.

"If it hasn't been paid I will ask the court to pay it over because it certainly wasn't our intention that it be delayed."

Mr Illingworth said the money was a donation.

"I wouldn't have thought that anyone will be asking for any money back.

"It was a donation that was made and it was made with no strings attached. It was made as a genuine act of reparation."

He said if they won their appeal and the conviction was overturned there would be no need for reparation but they would still not ask for the money back.

"If you make a gift to somebody you can't ask for it back again just because circumstances have changed," Mr Illingworth said.

- NZPA