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| The Gangster who calls himself the "victim" Yisroel Meir Briskman, he refuses to give his wife a "get" |
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| David and Judy Wax |
The FBI says an Ocean County couple abducted an Israeli man, beat him and threatened to bury him alive if he didn't give his wife a religious divorce.
Federal authorities say the victim had refused to give his wife a "get," or a divorce sanctioned by the Rabbinical Court, preventing her from remarrying.
The victim left Israel for the United States. Authorities say David and Judy Wax, of Lakewood kidnapped him, robbed him and forced him to say he would grant the divorce.
David Wax is also accused of threatening to have the victim's father killed if he didn't pay the wife $100,000.
Defense attorney Steven Secare says Judy Wax will plead not guilty today in federal court. It isn't clear if David Wax has an attorney.
The couple, who have eight children, were charged today in federal court after they surrendered to the FBI.
At one point Wax, 49, allegedly showed Mr Briskman a body bag and told him 'if he did not comply, he would be buried alive in the Pocono Mountains', according to court documents.
Then he laid the body bag on top of 36-year-old Mr Briskman, and said: 'For you to get used to the size.'
If found guilty of kidnapping the pair could be sentenced to life in prison.
The couple are not thought to be related to Mr Briskman, and police said they had no conclusive motive for the kidnapping.
Mr Briskman had fled Israel two years previously, after refusing to grant his wife a 'get', an Orthodox Jewish divorce document which allows a woman to remarry.
At the time the High Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem issued an order to all observant Jews to shun Mr Briskman until he agreed to the religious divorce.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2016193/Rabbi-David-Wax-wife-Judy-kidnapped-Yisrael-Meir-Briskman.html#ixzz1SVMGNZCl
