Haaretz The Tel Aviv District Court on Sunday postponed issuing sentence on
Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto until May 12, after a particularly tense
sentencing hearing. Pinto was convicted on
April 14 on charges of bribery, attempted bribery and obstruction of
justice in a plea bargain, after admitted to the bribery of Israel
Police Brig. Gen. Ephraim Bracha.
In making its summation before Judge Oded Mudrick,
the prosecution castigated Pinto’s conduct, criticizing his “audacity”
and “manipulations” and describing him as “a man who thought himself
above the law.”
“The indictment to which the accused pleaded guilty
describes an extensive range of serious and sophisticated acts carried
out by a venerable figure, who sole purpose was to seriously and
repeatedly disrupt the law enforcement system by cynically exploiting
his spiritual status,” said prosecutor Racheli Hazan-Feldman.
“It’s hard to find a precedent for acts similar to
these,” she added. “We’re talking about a case of unprecedented
seriousness in terms of the attempt to undermine the activities of law
enforcement. This was an attempt to bribe a senior police officer to
obtain information about investigations in which the briber was
questioned under caution. We’re talking about a very large bribe of
$200,000.”[...]
I assumed he was modifying it to address me.
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