With the appointment of Aryeh Deri as Minister of Economy and his return to the government table, after 16 years of exile, the fate of another dominant figure from the famous "Deri trial" - state witness Yaakov Shmulevitz - is intriguing.
Well, it turns out that Shmulewitz recently decided to actually live inside a yacht in the marina in Herzliya.
To a Maariv newspaper reporter, who revealed his new residence, he said: "I'm not interested in that kind of attention, absolutely not. I left the headlines a long time ago and I'm comfortable in the quiet.".
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When asked - what do you say about Deri becoming a minister? - he replied: "What do you want me to say? I've disconnected myself from it. I don't care what this idiot is doing.".
Aryeh Deri was convicted in 1999 of most of the charges in the 'personal case' opened against him. Deri was sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of 250,000 NIS.
Deri never accepted his conviction in this case, and continued his efforts to obtain an acquittal even after serving his sentence. His main argument was that his conviction was based on the testimony of state witness Yaakov Shmuelevich, that the prosecution had concealed from the court documents relating to his previous convictions in Switzerland.
Shmuelevich was the administrative director of the Lev Banim Yeshiva, after Deri's departure, during a period when it was alleged that bribe money was transferred from the yeshiva to Deri (from Wikipedia).
