Eli Simchayof, the top Shas man in the Jerusalem administration is among the Holyland defendants heading to prison. Tel Aviv District Court Justice David Rosen sentenced Simchayof to 3.5 years imprisonment, 1.5 suspended sentence, and a 300,000 shekel fine. Regarding the former Shas Jerusalem deputy mayor, the court said “Simchayof was a trusted messenger of the public which elected him during many years in Jerusalem City Hall…”
In the court’s opening statement, Justice Rosen said “A public servant who accepts bribes is equivalent to a traitor”.
Justice Rosen also revealed Rishon L’Tzion Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef Shlita asked the court to be lenient on Simchayof, citing the latter’s good deeds and assistance for public institutions.
Simchayof was convicted last month of receiving seven checks from the state witness totaling 80,000 NIS. He was acquitted of accusations of receiving additional sums.
Simchayof’s legal team plans to appeal to the High Court of Justice.
Other defendants convicted in the case include former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was sentenced to six years imprisonment and a 1 million NIS fine.
Hillel Cherney (Major real estate developer and entrepreneur who owned the land on which the Holyland project was built), 3.5 years imprisonment, 2 year suspended sentence and a 2 million NIS fine.
Avigdor Kelner (A co-founder of the Holyland Park Company), 3 years imprisonment and a 1 million NIS fine.
Meir Rabin (Go-between and facilitator know as “the macher”), 5 years imprisonment, 2 year suspended sentence and a 500,000 NIS fine.
Uri Sheetrit (Former Jerusalem City Engineer), 7 years imprisonment.
Dan Dankner (Former Bank Hapoalim Chairman), 3 years imprisonment and a 2 year suspended sentence.
Shula Zaken, former Olmert confidant turned state witness is going to be sentenced later in the week in a closed-door session. It is expected she will serve 11 months imprisonment.
The sentencing for former Jerusalem Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky and Avraham Feiner will take place in June. The court directed the prosecutor to exhibit leniency in their case since they did not pocket any bribe money.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
שרייך סוררים, וחברי גנבים–כולו אוהבים שוחד
yermia, finally you and i agree
nebech what’s going on out there
Vuckovicher Chossid
it has not gotten worse, rather these types of people(of which there are many) are finally being dealt with.
Maybe this is just the begging of the average fellow getting a fair shot at life.
Lets continue with looking into the religious leaders.
I would like to read a good analysis of how tovas hana’ah and bribery in these cases work, I think that there are interesting questions and issues to be dealt with. IE – for example, a person can give truma to any kohen he wishes. Would it be wrong for him to accept money from a kohen to give all his truma to him? What if oversees the teruma of a large group — can he accept money to allocate all that truma to a specific kohen?
With so many Knesset members (present and past) in prison, perhaps the Knesset plenums can be held in prison. With all the yeshiva bochurim being arrested for not showing up at the draft board, I propose that they be relocated to the Knesset building, which will surely have plenty of room for them.