In a hearing before the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning 18 Kislev, the state told the court it is now willing to reduce the six-year prison term meted out to former Jerusalem Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky because of his poor health and the fact that the money he took in the Holyland real estate case was for the Yad Sarah charity and not to line his pockets. Jerusalem District Court Justice David Rosen sentenced Lupoliansky to six years imprisonment, a harsh sentence that the state is now willing to reduce.
State prosecutor Yonatan Tadmor told the court that after reviewing the sentences meted out to the defendants in the case the state feels the district court did not act harshly considering the seriousness of their crimes and convictions. However Tadmor explained to the court that due to the defendant’s deteriorating health the jail term may be reduced. He indicated the state is willing to drop from 6-8 years to 4-6 years, and in this case recommend the lenient end of that option. Tadmor explained most significant in Lupoliansky’s case is the fact the money was not taken for his own personal gain, but given to a charitable institution and this provides a door to introduce a measure of leniency coupled with the awareness of the defendant’s medical condition.
Justices Neil Hendel questioned if in this case the state was not willing to do what it does in other cases due to the notoriety factor; namely taking the defendant’s medical condition into consideration. Hendel added that this is usually a factor weighed in reaching a deal. Justice Hendel added that perhaps the position paper from Israel Prison Authority documenting that it can accommodate a prisoner with a serious illness weighs in and the state prefers to just permit him to seek his freedom via a parole board. The High Court questions if the prison system’s ability to accommodate such a prisoner, one with a serious illness, is justification for the state to ignore his medical condition during sentencing.
The appeals continue.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
What רשעים….
Note that it is true that only the Supreme Court, of all the major state institutions, remains true to the dream of creating a state that is “free” of Torah.
Their conscience mandated that some sort of “deal” was “eventually going to be made” as was predicted by myself some two years ago
The Holyland trial was once thrown out of Court.
Lupoliansky refused the plea bargain ,and then the other side admitted the accusations “heard round the world” were completely false (and just to make him and who he represents look bad).The judge discreetly apologized to Lupoliansky in the fall of 2012 ,because the case agaist him was so shabby and flimsy .
BUT the sad GAME must go on for consumption of the masses…
Could they possibly let Olmert go down ,but allow the charedi to get off the hook?
The evil of the people in charge of that Bolshevik nation cannot be overstated. It is truly a third world world country the likes of which can be found in South America. It is a part of life in such countries that you MUST be corrupt if you are in any position of authority. It is the way the game is played. This man was no more corrupt than the rest of them . He was picked on for political reasons by his political enemies. They don’t hesitate to destroy a man and his family for malicius reasons.