The State Attorney's Office is negotiating a plea deal with the lawyers of Rabbi Eliezer Berland, leader of the Shuvo Banim community, who is accused of extortion, fraud, tax offenses, and money laundering worth 130 million shekels - offenses that lasted about six years.
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The prosecutor's office is demanding a prison sentence of only a year and a half. According to a report in Kan News, at the moment the differences between the parties regarding the sentence are still large.
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The family of one of the women, who according to the indictment fell victim to his actions, strongly oppose a plea bargain with Rabbi Berland.
In a letter they sent to the Attorney General's Office today, they wrote: "This is delusional, inconceivable, infuriating, outrageous, and we will not allow this to happen under any circumstances.".
Haredim 10 publishes parts of the letter:
""To the honor of the Jerusalem District Attorney's Office.
Our sister's voice cries out from the ground!
We, the sister, brother and aunts of the late Shoshi, our sweet sister and niece whose life was cut short in its prime.
Following the complaint of our dear mother, Nurit, about what led to Shoshi's untimely death, a complaint that opened Pandora's box, the Israel Police entered the picture with all its might and power, established a special investigation team, summoned hundreds of witnesses, and ultimately arrested Berland, filed a very serious indictment, and since then, when the case passed into your hands, you have fought with great courage and resourcefulness day after day against all the endless manipulations of this man, who tried every means of fraud and impersonation, as usual, in order to evade the threat of justice, and you managed to bring about a situation in which the court, vehicle after vehicle and court after court, understood that this man's place was behind bars until the end of the proceedings.
It was a drop of comfort for us in an ocean of grief.
Recently, unfounded rumors began to spread about a plea deal being formed. A mother who could not bear the grief of this possibility literally collapsed. Her heart could not take it and she has been hospitalized for over three weeks.
The death of her beloved Shoshi severely affected her health, but the rumors of a plea deal overwhelmed her. She is now in the midst of a difficult recovery process and we try every day to come and bring good news. The fight in Berland and the dedication of our lives to ensure that what happened to Shoshi will never happen to anyone else – has become the fuel and oxygen of her life since Shoshi's death. She saw it as a testament and a mission and never let up for a moment. She managed to infect us with this spirit, and like her, we will neither rest nor be silent.
When we heard, yesterday for the first time officially, that this idea for a plea deal was indeed taking shape – we were shocked. It left us speechless. How can it even be imagined that a man who managed to cause such atrocities and scandals in the short period of time between his release from prison in 2017 as part of the lenient plea deal that was signed with him... and his arrest in the 'Black Ops' case in 2020 – would now be released from prison again with such a miserable and shameful plea deal?
How can a person - whose case every judge has understood without a shadow of a doubt that his dangerousness is so terrible that he cannot be released even to the strictest and strictest detention alternative, despite his advancing age and 'health condition' - be released within a few months and continue without any restrictions, which is sure to happen, his unbridled rampage?
This is delusional, this is inconceivable, this is infuriating, this is outrageous, and we will not let this happen under any circumstances. We beg, in the name of the late Shoshi, who is no longer here, in the name of the mother, who passed away to a good and long life, whose heart almost stopped beating when this foolish idea only dared to be heard, in the name of all the victims who are not with us and in the name of all the victims who will certainly and without a doubt fall and fall and fall under his insatiable follies.. Don't let this happen! Take this man to the fullest! He belongs in prison and only in prison, to the extent the law allows, without any leniency or concessions! It is impossible, it will not happen!
"With a lot of pain in my heart, hope and faith""
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Rabbi Berland has been under arrest since the month of Shevat, when the investigation into the 'Black Oppression' affair became public.
Last March, an indictment was filed against him in the Jerusalem District Court for receiving something by fraud under aggravated circumstances, extortion, attempted extortion, and attempted solicitation of serious damage.
According to the indictment, Rabbi Berland "took advantage of his position as a well-known and respected rabbi within his community and beyond, and systematically acted to extort sums of money from people in distress who turned to the defendant for help and rescue.".
In April, the court ordered his arrest until the end of the legal proceedings.
The case in the 'Black Oppression' affair is being heard before Judge Einat Ebman-Mueller in the Jerusalem District Court.
In April, the Jerusalem District Attorney's Office submitted a request to the city's District Court to amend the indictment and add two charges dealing with tax offenses and money laundering.
