Prosecutors: Keep dying Madoff in jail

Bibi fails to form a gov’t, rips elex foe & Arab party

Bernie Madoff should die in prison, federal prosecutors and hundreds of the fraudster’s victims say.

Madoff, 81, asked a federal judge for compassionate release last month, claiming he has kidney disease and less than 18 months to live.

But prosecutors say the reviled fraudster, who ran a massive $65 billion, decades-long scam, shouldn’t be released early even if the kidney disease kills him — citing letters from more than 500 of his victims.

In fact, his 2009 sentence of 150 years was meant to be a de facto life sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Drew Skinner and Louis Pellegrino argued in a court filing Wednesday.

“Madoff, unlike other serious white-collar fraudsters, received a sentence he could not possibly outlive because his crime was exponentially more serious than even the most serious other offenses,” they wrote.

“Madoff’s crimes were ‘extraordinarily evil.’ His sentence was appropriately long. It should not be reduced.”

Only 20 victims supported the compassionate release, prosecutors said.

“I lost all my money and my husband of 40 years committed suicide because of his horrific crimes. As far as I am concerned, he should spend the rest of his life in jail,” wrote one victim.

Madoff (inset) demonstrated “a wholesale lack of understanding of the seriousness of his crimes and a lack of compassion for his victims, underscoring that he is undeserving of compassionate release himself,” prosecutors said.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has agreed he fits the criteria for a program that permits compassionate release for some inmates if they have less than 18 months to live, but has turned the request down because it “would minimize the severity of his offense.”

Madoff’s lawyer, Brandon Sample, described the scam artist’s health as failing fast.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fallen short of capturing the majority needed to form a government, near-final election results showed Wednesday, deepening a year of political deadlock and appearing to dash the long-serving leader’s hopes for a decisive victory as his trial on corruption charges nears.

In an angry tirade, Netanyahu (inset) conceded that he did not have the parliamentary support to form a new government right away. But he still tried to claim victory as he lashed out at his main opponent and disparaged the leading Arab party — the third largest in parliament — as irrelevant.

“This is what the nation decided,” he said. “The public gave me more votes than any other candidate for prime minister in the nation’s history.”

After failing to form a government following two general elections last year and with his legal woes closing in, Netanyahu had been hoping for a clear win in Monday’s vote. With initial exit polls predicting a near-majority for Netanyahu and his nationalistreligious allies, he declared a “great victory” to thousands of jubilant supporters under a torrent of confetti on Election Night.

But Wednesday’s near-final tally painted a different picture.

With more than 99% of the votes counted, Netanyahu’s Likud led the way with 36 seats, ahead of Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party, with 33 seats. Yet with his allies, Netanyahu’s rightwing camp held a total of only 58 seats, three shy of the 61 needed to form a government and no clear path to reaching the threshold.

In a stunning rebuke to Netanyahu, the Joint List, an umbrella group of Arab-led parties, finished third with an all-time high 15 seats.

The Joint List “isn’t even part of the equation,” Netanyahu said, claiming its members are hostile to the state.