Clues to a mystery that is more than 60 years old will be revealed next week at an intriguing Jerusalem press conference.

On May 6 1947, a 16-year-old volunteer for the hard right-wing Stern Group in pre-state Palestine, Alexander Haim Rubowitz, was distributing political leaflets on a Jerusalem street corner. The teenager was abducted by men who identified themselves as British police officers — and was never seen again.

He was presumed to have been murdered by his abductors, but his body
was never found. The mystery of what happened to him has frequently pointed to a British officer in the Palestine Police, Roy Farran, who died in 2006.

A man’s hat with the letters “F-A-R-A-N” embossed in the sweatband was found near the scene of Rubowitz’s abduction, but despite three identification parades, witnesses were unable to pick Farran out.

Nevertheless, he faced a military courtmartial in October 1947. But the prosecution were unable to prove a satisfactory link between Farran and an alleged murder. The disappearance of Rubowitz was never resolved.

Now, a right-wing group has hired a New York investigations agency and believes it has evidence that Farran did kill the teenager. They are offering a 50,000 shekel reward for information leading to Rubowitz’s body — a location which local Bedouin say they know.