An especially lenient plea bargain agreement was accepted between a police officer who drove a drunk, crossed an intersection on a red light, hit and injured a victim and then fled the scene without calling for help, Shelly Tapieroof of Israel News reports on Kikar Shabbos News.

The accident occurred in February this year, in Tel Aviv, and this week, the Transportation Court was presented with a plea bargain according to which the defendant would send six months of community service only in addition to his license being suspended for four years. This is a particularly lenient punishment, since the punishment prescribed by law for a hit-and-run accident is three years in prison.

As noted, only Tuesday, 27 Tishrei, the sentence of the driver David Amar, who struck a child at Bar Ilan Junction was announced. Omar’s attorney and the State Prosecutor’s Office reached a plea bargain, in which Omar pleaded guilty and was convicted, but after the parties did not agree on the punishment. The State Prosecutor’s Office requested that he be sentenced to 42 months in prison.

Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman decided to take into account the circumstances of his life and ease his sentence even though he drove a car without a driver’s license and that was his fourth conviction. In addition, he was sentenced to prison for violating an earlier probation to an additional seven-months sentence, four of which would be included in the new sentence for a total of 30 months in prison. He is also barred from driving for five years from his date of release from prison and he must bay the victim 10,000 shekels.

The Tel Aviv District Attorney’s Office said in response to the policeman’s lenient plea bargain: “This is a balancing arrangement encompassing all the considerations. The complainant was lightly injured. The defendant waited until the ambulance arrived and only then fled. In addition, following the incident he was dismissed from the police force. ”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)