NEW YORK (AP) – Thirteen men pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from their alleged role in a dispute over an illegal tunnel built beneath a historic Brooklyn synagogue in the United States.
The defendants, many of them international students from Israel, appeared in Brooklyn court on charges of reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and obstruction of governmental administration.
They were issued a limited protection order that bars them from making any excavations or alterations to the building. They also cannot be in contact with a local rabbi. Prosecutors said the defendants – who ranged in age from 19 to 26 – were involved in a January 8 melee in the basement of the global headquarters of Chabad-Lubavitch.
The dispute erupted after the discovery of an underground passage connecting four buildings within the famed complex.
