Even though these charges were dropped, some of Klein’s friends pressing for his release have said he is not willing to plead guilty to even one charge.
Klein was accused in 1989 by the Colombian authorities, along with several other former IDF officers, of providing paramilitary training and arms to drug lords running international cocaine cartels. He managed to flee Colombia, but there are still outstanding arrest warrants for him there and in the United States.
He was tried in Israel for using knowledge learned in the Israel Defense Force and exporting weapons without the approval of the Israel Defense Ministry’s export division.
Klein has continually maintained his innocence, denying he knowingly trained drug cartel bosses and claiming he was assigned to train a group of farmers to defend themselves against one of the many rebel groups in Colombia.
He said he left Israel for Africa more than three years ago in the quest for lucrative diamond mines.
“Klein says the charges [in Sierra Leone] are trumped up and that he is not ready to take the blame for something he did not do,” said a friend, a former senior IDF officer.
The source also said that only in the last week was Klein, in his mid-50s, escorted out of prison for medical and dental treatment. He suffers from chronic malaria and other ailments.
For years, Africa has been popular with Israeli security experts hired to train governments and armies. It has also been popular with diamond dealers, especially following the slump of the diamond industry in Israel. Klein belonged to both industries.