In February 1999, a five-judge panel of the Supreme Court blocked Sheinbein's extradition in a 3–2 ruling. It cited a 1978 law that banned the extradition of Israeli citizens. While acknowledging that Israel had signed a treaty with the United States allowing the extradition of citizens in 1963, it ruled that the 1978 law took precedence, and Sheinbein's lack of ties to Israel did not negate his claim to citizenship. Concern was expressed over the possibility that this ruling could turn Israel into a sanctuary for criminals. In writing his dissenting opinion, Justice Aharon Barak, the President of the Israeli Supreme Court, wrote of this possibility. The court's majority opinion, authored by Justice Theodor Or, expressed the position that the law prohibited Sheinbein's extradition, and the district court's ruling implied different levels of Israeli citizenship. In spite of this, Or wrote that it would have been ideal had Sheinbein been tried in the United States: "One can wonder if there is any justification for protecting someone from extradition when that person is not a resident and has no connection to Israel. It is hard to see any injustice when citizens have to stand trial for crimes they committed in a country which is the very center of their lives." In a last-ditch effort to have him extradited, Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein submitted a request that a larger panel of Supreme Court justices reexamine the case. Deputy Supreme Court President Shlomo Levin rejected the request. Conviction and imprisonment Following the decision, Israeli prosecutors began preparing to try him for murder in the Israeli judicial system, and a Tel Aviv state prosecutor had already been assigned by the time the Supreme Court rejected Rubinstein's request to reconsider its decision. On March 22, 1999, State Prosecutor Hadassah Naor indicted Sheinbein for murder with intent to kill in the Tel Aviv District Court. The charge was equivalent to a charge of first-degree murder in the United States. In August 1999, Sheinbein accepted a plea bargain with prosecutors, and in September he confessed to murdering Tello. In October, a three-judge panel at Tel Aviv District Court sentenced him to 24 years in prison, with eligibility for prison furloughs after 4 years and parole after 16 years. It was reportedly the harshest sentence that had ever been imposed in Israel for a crime committed by a minor; previously, no minor had been given a sentence longer