http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/483068.html Two Israelis suspected of having links to the Mossad and jailed for trying to illegally obtain a New Zealand passport were released and deported early Wednesday.
Uriel Kelman and Eli Cara were released in line with normal policy after serving half of their six-month sentences. They were released early in the morning, served with deportation orders and later placed on a plane under police escort.
They were flying to Hong Kong on Wednesday and are due to travel to Israel on Thursday.
The two men pleaded guilty in July to trying to obtain a New Zealand passport using the identity of a wheelchair-bound cerebral palsy victim. New Zealand suspended all high-level diplomatic contact with Israel as a result and has sought an explanation and apology.
Israel is refusing to comment on the case.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said there have still been no approaches from Israel over the issue, and thus the diplomatic sanctions would stay in place.
"The ball remains in Israel's court," Clark said in a statement.
The Israelis escaped a more severe sentence by each donating 50,000 New Zealand dollars to a local charity. They faced a maximum penalty of five years in jail and have appealed their convictions.
They were arrested in March after police secretly followed them as they were arranging to pick up the passport.
Clark has said there were "very strong reasons" to suspect the men were acting on behalf of Israel's intelligence services, without producing any evidence.
A Jewish chapel was torched, up to 90 graves smashed, and swastikas and Nazi slogans were gouged into grass in a cemetery in Wellington in the wake of the freeze on ties with Israel.
A third Israeli man, Zev William Barkan, whom the defense pinpointed as the mastermind behind the passport operation but who left New Zealand before he could be arrested, is still wanted.
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