Written by Malia Rulon Herman
Gannett News Service
    A New York businessman imprisoned in Bolivia for more than 18 months without being formally charged was released on bail this week, Republican Rep. Chris Smith said Tuesday.

    The man’s daughter, Chaya Weinberger of Lakewood, had begged lawmakers at a congressional hearing in June to help free her father, Jacob Ostreicher.

    She told Smith and other members of Congress her father’s health was in jeopardy the longer he remained behind bars.

    “We’re excited. It’s a step in the right direction,” Weinberger said in a phone interview Tuesday. “We are hoping that he’ll be home soon.”

    Ostreicher is not permitted to leave Bolivia while free on bail.

    An Orthodox Jew, he spent months on a hunger strike after Passover ended in April.

    He developed symptoms of Parkinson’s disease while imprisoned and was taken to a hospital in Bolivia, his daughter said.

    Smith, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, said Tuesday it is outrageous it took so long to free Ostreicher.

    “This is only the beginning of the end,” he said. “Jacob has incurred permanent damage to his health and has lost over 18 precious months of his life with his wife, children and grandchildren. In addition, his life remains at risk every day that he remains in Bolivia, due to credible death threats against him.”

    Smith, who traveled to Bolivia with Democratic Rep. Nydia Velazquez of New York and actor Sean Penn to meet with Ostreicher earlier this month, called on the Bolivian judicial system to act swiftly to completely exonerate him and grant him his freedom.