(Reuters) – Three Orthodox Jewish rabbis were convicted in New Jersey yesterday of conspiracy to commit kidnapping in a scheme to force men to grant divorces to their unhappy wives under Jewish law.
Two of the rabbis were convicted as well of attempted kidnapping in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, according to the office of Paul Fishman, U.S. attorney for New Jersey.
The case before U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson hinged in part on the testimony of an undercover FBI agent who posed as an Orthodox Jewish wife seeking a divorce.
An Orthodox Jewish woman cannot get a religious divorce unless her husband consents through a document known as a “get.”
Prosecutors said the rabbis operated a ring that kidnapped or tried to kidnap men and tortured them with beatings and stun guns until they agreed to divorce.
Undercover agents recorded meetings in which arrangements were made for the ring to kidnap one husband at a New Jersey warehouse for $60,000, prosecutors said.
Rabbis Mendel Epstein, Jay Goldstein and Binyamin Stimler were found guilty of conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
The conspiracy charge carries the possible sentence of life in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
