Ramat Gan politicians clash over arrest of ex-Mexican diplomat

Ramat Gan City Council members demanded a meeting Monday night over the mayor's support for ex-UNESCO diplomat Andrés Roemer Slomianski's arrest and possible extradition to Mexico for alleged rapes.

Council members Avivit Maor Nimrodi, Haya Mena, Dana Wolnovsky, Sarit Asraf-Levi, Mira Shnan, and former mayor Yaakov Hagar accused Mayor Carmel Shama Hacohen of believing Roemer over the alleged victims.

Hacohen told Ynet on Monday that he didn’t trust Mexican legal and judicial authorities, and that while he didn’t know the details of the accusations, he did know of previous political persecution of Roemer by the Mexican government.

The critical politicians said they had further asked the mayor about Roemer, and claimed that Shama-Hacohen had asserted that there was a plot against the ex-diplomat over his support for Israel. In 2016, the then-UNESCO representative had walked out of a discussion on a resolution that his country had supported and was removed from his post.

The council members decried Hacohen using his title and speaking on behalf of the city to defend Roemer. They noted that the two men were friends, and a street was named after the Mexican-Israeli citizen at the behest of Hacohen. 

“It is a dark day for the status of women in the world, in Israel and in Ramat Gan, and as public representatives we are filled with anger, shame, disgrace and sorrow on this day,” wrote the council members. “We call to express personal support from everyone who was harmed by Anders Roemer and ask in all this darkness to shed some light with a strong public call against these acts.”

Who is Roemer?

Police arrested the almost 60-year-old Roemer in response to an arrest warrant from Interpol. Mexico had requested an extradition of the suspect in 2022.

Roemer is set to be in detention until October 16, upon which he is expected to be extradited. The State Attorney’s Office’s international department filed extradition documents to the Jerusalem District Court on Monday.

The writer and academic is accused of the rape of several women in Mexico City. In 2021, a group calling itself “United Mexican Journalists’’ compiled the testimonies of 54 women who claimed that Roemer had sexually assaulted him, and the stories of seven others who explained how he used his position to isolate and lure women.

Roemer has insisted on his innocence as recently as a social media post on Saturday. He wrote that polygraph tests had supported his claims.