“There is no deterrence factor and human life has become cheap,” said Chaim Levanon, the father of Yinon HY”D, in response to the intent of the Attorney General’s office to request a lenient sentence for the illegal worker smuggler, Sa’id Al-Nabari, who killed his son. The family also stated that “The plea bargain is a crime.” The Attorney General’s office informed Levanon’s family that they would request a sentence of only 3.5 years, despite the fact that Al-Nabari will be convicted on a charge of killing which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Honenu attorney Hur Uriel Nizri filed an appeal on behalf of Levanon’s family, however the Southern District Attorney rejected the appeal.
A deliberation took place on Sunday, March 1, at the Beersheva District Court on the case of Sa’id Al-Nabari, the Bedouin illegal worker smuggler who killed Yinon Levanon on February 10, 2013 in a terrifying traffic accident near the Metar Crossing in the Har Hebron region. The Attorney General’s office was expected to present a plea bargain which it had reached with Al-Nabari, according to which he would be sentenced to only three and a half years imprisonment.
Al-Nabari did not appear at the deliberation and therefore the presentation of the plea bargain was postponed until the deliberation which will take place in three weeks.
Family and friends of Yinon Levanon did arrive at the courthouse in order to express their anger at the plea bargain. The Bedouin smuggler drove hazardously as he evaded a police car, crossed a solid white line and passed 10 vehicles, in the end colliding with the car which Levanon drove. Levanon, who was 28 years old at the time, died at the scene. Approximately two weeks prior to the incident the smuggler was detained when he smuggled illegal workers over the Green Line. He was released by the police.
Levanon’s family wore shirts with Yinon’s photograph on them to the courthouse on Sunday, 10 Adar.
“We object to the State easing his [Al-Nabari] penalty and arriving at a plea bargain of a three and a half year sentence when the matter at hand is a killing,” said Chaim Levanon. “We cannot make sense of it. The law is being disparaged, there is no deterrence factor and human life has become cheap. We demand that the plea bargain be changed. This plea bargain is a crime and a scandal. How can the State not know and not enforce its own laws?” Levanon added that the fact that the plea bargain was presented even though the defendant was not present at the deliberations and belittled the legal process is even more serious.
Levanon described his son: “Yinon was a charming young man, very close to his friends and family. He was always happy. He was very talented, good with his hands, sensitive, a poet, played the violin. He supported Jewish labor construction work. Love of the Land and love of the Jewish people burned within him.”
The Levanon family, with the assistance of Honenu, intends to continue the campaign to cancel the plea bargain so that their son’s killer will receive a more lengthy prison sentence.
PHOTO: Yinon Levanon’s family wearing shirts with is photograph, in front of the Beersheva District Court
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
Plea bargaining is one of the prosecutors self serving abuses that rewards the guilty and punishes the innocent.
The object is to blackmail the accused into pleading guilty by offering a light sentence in exchange for a guilty plea. A guilty person will agree and get off lightly. An innocent person will refuse. If he pays a lot of money in legal expenses, he may be exonerated. If he’s not so lucky he’ll get a harsh sentence.