Supreme Court Jails Ex-MK Ben-Yizri for 4 Years
Tammuz 2, 5769, 24 June 09 11:45
by Maayana Miskin(Israelnationalnews.com) The Supreme Court decided Wednesday to increase a jail sentence given to former minister Shlomo Ben-Yizri from 18 months to four years. In addition, the court more than tripled an accompanying fine, sentencing Ben-Yizri to pay 250,000 shekels ($62,000) in place of the 80,000 shekel ($20,000) fine imposed by a lower court.
Ben-Yizri was ordered to begin serving his prison sentence on September 1. short;y before the Rosh HaShanah Jewish Near Year holiday.
The former Shas member was convicted of abusing his power as an MK and a minister to provide favors for contractor Moshe Sela in exchange for bribes. Rabbi Reuven Elbaz was convicted as a co-conspirator.
Ben-Yizri was accused of obtaining permits for foreign workers for Sela, providing him with inside information and hiring members of Sela's family for state jobs in exchange for bribes, primarily money. Much of the money was donated to yeshivas run by Rabbi Elbaz.
The two were convicted after Sela turned state's witness. Sela testified that he paid for improvements made to Ben-Yizri's home and for other benefits.
Justice Edmund Levy explained the harsher verdict, saying, "The growing corruption in Israel's public institutes requires us to take action by setting a higher price for such acts." While he expressed sympathy for Ben-Yizri and his family, Levy noted, "He himself did not take care to follow the prohibition against taking bribes."
Ben-Yizri reacted with shock to the new, harsher verdict handed down Wednesday. "This is a hard day for me, my elderly parents, my wife, and my eight children... I have been persecuted and maligned," he said.
"The court found that I did not take a single shekel for myself, even though prosecutors tried to portray this as a big bribery scandal... I don't understand the harsh verdict," he added.
Former Finance Minister Avraham Hirschson of Kadima will appear in court on Wednesday as well. Hirschson is expected to face prison time for embezzling public funds.
Shas Says Benziri Sentence Disproportionate
Tammuz 2, 5769, 24 June 09 11:26
(Israelnationalnews.com) Shas MKs spoke out on Wednesday and said that the four year jail sentence the high court gave former Minister Shlomo Benziri is disproportionate. The court chose to increase Benziri’s prison sentence from one and a half to four years and increase the fine he has to pay from NIS 80,000 to NIS 250,000.
Benziri, who is father to eight, appeared visibly shaken after the verdict was handed down and claimed he did not actually ever accept a bribe, but that his crime should have been treated as a lighter offense. He said he would have to read the verdict carefully before taking further action.
NB: I don't know about the exact details of this case: there might have been corruption involved, we know that a lot of the religious institutions are riddled with corruption as well.
Still, this does not take away from the fact that the Supreme Court has a CLEAR BIAS AGAINST RELIGIOUS JEWS AND SETTLERS, and CONSISTENTLY RULES IN FAVOR OF THE LEFT, AND AGAINST TORAH JEWS.
THIS IS CALLED ANTISEMITISM, AND WOULD NEVER BE TOLERATED FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY. IT REMINDS ME OF THE DESTRUCTION OF SYNAGOGUES IN GUSH KATIF,- see slide show on the blog - WHICH PASSED SILENTLY, WHILE A SIMILAR ACTION IN GERMANY, LET'S SAY, WOULD HAVE PROVOKED A HUGE OUTCRY WORLDWIDE - at least before the world itself started on an antisemitic rampage.
THIS STATE OF AFFAIRS HAS TO CHANGE: WHAT ARE YAAKOV NEEMAN AND URI ARIEL WAITING FOR???
Some comments:
Milton says:
Daisy, take it easy on this Jew-hatred business. Try to use it when it's really applicable.
If Ben-Yizri screwed up and got convicted (remember Aryeh Deri?) then he wont screw up again.
It's no more complicated than that.
While Samy said:
I don't understand, the guy misused his office and got payback for it. If it went to him or someone else is not the issue.
Because of people like this, in case he is guilty , we are paying high taxes.
this is not some private person doing some tax evasion.
The excuse everybody does it is not valid , because prosecute everyone.
Now maybe the punishment is harsh maybe not. for this one has to see full court proceedings.
....
I am not pro civil courts.
But if the facts are that he manipulated his position and got benefits for his people more then others, so he should get to sit at home with no punishment?????????????
DS answers: So maybe I am wrong in this case. If so, my sincere apologies, and I will take down the post. But don't you agree that the Supreme Court is biased? Haven't you seen enough examples of it?
I still think that they were extra harsh with him because of his being Shas and not, let's say, Labor or Kadima, wouldn't you agree?
While SHmuel said:
f course it is for the "benefit of clean government" and all that jazz.
Now, Ezer Weitzman took a 1 million dollar personal bribe and he only had to resign a bit out of his President's posting. Nothing else.
Ladies * gentlemen,
If the PEOPLE insist on keeping the gruesome filth that was inserted up there as "judges" and politzei commanders, our common future will also include "desaparecidos", mass murder and more.
I do not condone illegal acts but I have personal evidence of the degree of putrefaction that system is inundated with.
DS: NOW MAKE SURE TO READ MY NEXT POST ABOUT THE TOPIC: IT TURNS OUT THIS WAS NOT AN ANTISEMITIC ATTACK, BUT AN ANTI-RELIGIOUS ATTACK. BENIZRI GOT AN AUGMENTED AND UNFAIR SENTENCE BECAUSE OF HIS INSISTENCE ON PRESERVING THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF ISRAEL: OPPOSING THE GAY MOVEMENT IN ISRAEL.
MAYBE IN YOUR BOOK THEY ARE DIFFERENT. IN MY BOOK, ANY ATTACK AGAINST A JEW BECAUSE HE FOLLOWS THE TORAH IS ANTISEMITIC BY DEFINITION.
BARRY CHAMISH'S COMMENT:
LEVY, (YIGAL) AMIR'S JUDGE.
DS: GOODNESS! NOW YOU CAN SEE HOW THEY ARE ALL IN BED TOGETHER.
bill sent this
Shas newspaper: System can't stand successful Moroccans
Stiffened punishment for Benizri arouses resentment within Sephardic haredi community. 'Why is Olmert still free?' asks front-page article of Shas newspaper, which claims discrimination. Former MK Maya: We are still in exile. They are deathly afraid of us
A day after the ruling was handed down stiffening the sentence against former minister Shlomo Benizri, stipulating that the Shas member will sit in jail for four years, the Sephardic haredi community is up in arms.
Within the haredi community, it is widely believed that the fact former minister Abraham Hirchson, who was convicted of embezzling millions of shekels, received a far lesser sentence than his haredi colleague for a more serious offense smacks of the discrimination that started with Arye Deri.
In the biting article, Rabbi Moshe Shapir attacked the legal system and the media in Israel, claiming that they operate on an ethnic, clan basis. "A comparison between the trial of Hirchson, who stole from taboo areas and the trial of the Shas minister who only failed to follow the draconian protocols left over from the Mandate period, does not indicate a great degree of sanity within the Israeli justice system," wrote Shapir, editor of the newspaper's Oneg Shabbat supplement.
According to him, when the public looks at similar instances from the past, the ethnic discrimination is obvious.
"I think it is obvious what happened here. Olmert is still walking free; (former president) Ezer Weizman was also helped out; and, what's happening with Benizri? Four years to a person with eight children? Apparently, he touched upon something, disturbed something, spoke too much. Just as they did to Deri, they're doing to Benizri. They like us small, useless, and harmless, as some kind of pets," Shapir explained public sentiment.
'We are still in exile'
Shapir is not the only one to be of this opinion. Rabbi Moshe Maya, a former Shas MK said to Ynet, "Our people were in exile for 2000 years. We grew accustomed to being in exile. The people of Israel in exile walked with their heads down. We are also holding our heads down in quiet in the meantime."
And here are the latest related news, 6/26/09
(Israelnationalnews.com) MK Michael Ben-Ari (Ichud Leumi – National Union) has begun a campaign to get Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch removed from the Judges Selection Committee. Ben-Ari charges that Beinisch is biased against religious nominees.
The freshman MK is calling on his colleagues to sign a petition asking Beinisch to step down.
The initiative to remove Beinisch from the committee began, Ben-Ari explains, “following an aggressive, unprecedented campaign that began in the [Supreme Court] President's office, against the candidacy of four religious judges to the Supreme Court.” Beinisch's associates attacked certain candidates in particular, he said, chief among them judge Moshe Drori.
Sources identified as being "close to Beinisch" said the justice had received dozens of angry letters complaining about Drori's candidacy. “That's really amazing, Drori's candidacy was made public just a day ago, and president Beinisch has already received dozens of responses,” Ben-Ari replied.
"Moreover, did Beinisch receive complaints against Drori alone? Were there no complaints against other judges, those who Justice Beinisch hopes to see succeed?” he asked.
Report Led to Complaints of Racism
According to the Hebrew-language daily Yediot Aharonot, many complaints were sent following a report in the paper accusing Drori of racism. The paper published selected quotes from a judgement in which Drori ruled in favor of a hareidi-religious man accused of attacking a female supermarket cashier of Ethiopian Jewish origin, and followed with statements from Ethiopian-Israeli activists accusing the judge of racism.
Among those who criticized Drori following the publication of the Yediot Aharonot article was MK Shlomo Molla, who termed Drori “racist and evil.”
Not all responses to the report were critical. Several figures in the legal world spoke out in defense of Drori, terming him “brilliant,” “understanding” and “warm.”
Boaz Kenig, the attorney who represented the hareidi-religious man in the case that led to accusations of racism, accused Yediot Aharonot of taking quotes out of context. “In order to understand the verdict you have to read the entire thing,” he insisted. “There isn't a trace of racism against the plaintiff – the opposite.”
Media Leaks to Sway Committee?
Whatever the complaints against Drori or others, such information should not be leaked to the public, Ben-Ari said. “Is this how the Judges Selection Committee is supposed to make its decisions? Is this how committee members are swayed to pick one judge over another?”
Ben-Ari ended his petition with harsh criticism of Beinisch and her colleagues: “Justice Beinisch, like her fellow 'enlightened, liberal' judges, wants the Supreme Court to have a single opinion. They do not want religious judges, judges who may have voted for a party slightly to the right of Meretz, they do not want independent judges, only those who will conform to the system.”
See also the entry -Re: the Supreme Court.... for more related information.
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