Despite having signed a plea bargain, Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto will go to jail. Tel Aviv District Court Judge Oded Mudrik handed down a sentence of one year in prison a NIS 1 million fine on Pinto, who was convicted on his own admission and in the plea bargain of bribery, offering a bribe, and obstructing justice.
The court acceded to request by Pinto's counsel to delay the sentence for 45 days pending an appeal against it to the Supreme Court.
"Pinto sinned and caused others to sin, became corrupt and corrupted others. He involved other people in what he did, among them his wife, even though she was in a difficult psychological state. The appropriate level of punishment for his actions is much higher than the level set in the plea bargain, and is three to seven years imprisonment," the judge wrote in the sentence.
Nevertheless, Judge Mudrik said that "the plea bargain is reasonable in the light of the suspicion that corruption had spread in the highest ranks of the police, and this requires examination and investigation to remove all trace of the pestilence." In Pinto's favor, the judge said that he had heard affecting testimony about his character. The court was full of Pinto's followers who had come to support him.
Under the plea bargain signed by Rabbi Pinto, he admitted giving a bribe amounting to NIS 400,000 to Israel Police Major General Ephraim Bracha, who currently commands the police Lahav 433 fraud unit. He was also convicted of giving Bracha another bribe, in exchange for information about a different investigation being conducted against him, in which he was eventually not charged. As part of the plea bargain, Pinto will give evidence for the state against former Israel Police Lahav 433 unit commander Major General Menashe Arviv, who is suspected of receiving illegal favors from him.
Pinto was known for his widespread contacts with Israel's political and business elites.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 12, 2015
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015