The event: The Holyland Affair
Date: Judgment - 29th of Adar II"
The biggest corruption scandal in the country's history. That's the nickname given to the Holyland trial.
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It all started with one man, the man without whom the citizens of the country would not know the Holyland complex in Jerusalem. He is Shmuel Dechner, the one who for years was called S. D. - the man on whose testimony the accusations against the Holyland convicts are based.
In February 2010, the prosecution signed a state witness agreement with Shmuel Dechner, under which he was granted generous terms, including payment of a "living allowance" of 12,000 shekels per month - all so that he would open his mouth in court and testify, among other things, against those who served as prime minister and mayor of Jerusalem.
Decner died on March 1, 2013, a few days after the defense began its cross-examination. Some of the parties did not have time to question him, including Ehud Olmert's lawyers.
The date of the verdict was set for March 31, 2014, 29 Adar 5774.
At the end of a trial that lasted two years, over 140 sessions, Tel Aviv District Court Judge David Rosen, in his ruling, convicted 10 of the 13 defendants, and acquitted three defendants due to doubt.
Our People of the Year in the world of law, on whom we will focus, are former Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky and former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - they are the people who made this trial dramatic on the one hand and absurd on the other.
The former prime minister was sentenced to 6 years in prison, two years probation, and a fine of 1 million NIS.
The prosecutor's office celebrated its great achievement, and attorney Jonathan Tadmor presented the trial as a milestone in the prosecutor's office's war on corruption.
Uri Lupoliansky: Touched everyone's heart
The human and touching story of the Holyland affair is the story of Uri Lupoliansky, the former mayor of Jerusalem, who was convicted of accepting bribes for donations totaling more than 2 million NIS that Mahalel Czerny - who was also convicted - received for the organization 'Yad Sarah', the organization that constitutes Lupoliansky's life's work.
It seemed that the judge intended to reduce Lupolianski's sentence, and throughout the trial he hinted at this.
Even in the sentence, the judge wrote the following words: "Lupoliansky is blessed with many virtues, he is not a criminal, he is not a person immersed solely in the world of embezzlement and crime. On the contrary. Lupoliansky sought throughout his life to contribute and do for the benefit of the community and the public as a whole," the judge wrote. However, in the same situation, in the same document, Judge Rosen sentenced Uri Lupoliansky to 6 years in prison and one year of probation.
The results of Lupolianski's trial aroused the natural sense of justice of the country's citizens. Many expressed their opinions publicly, including former judges, and many bit their lips and raised an eyebrow in light of the severe punishment for a man about whom the judge himself went out of his way to say kind words. The judge repeatedly mentioned that he did not take a single shekel into his pocket - but words aside and actions aside.
After the widespread public criticism heard in the media and the expression of disappointment with Judge David Rosen, the judge did not hold back and went beyond the rules of ethics and expressed his personal opinion on the ruling publicly, on a panel at the Eilat Bar Association conference. There, it was important for him to make it clear that he did not regret the severity of the ruling and that he was at peace with what he had ruled. Supreme Court President Justice Asher Grunis reprimanded him for his response.
With the close of 2014, the Supreme Court delayed the execution of the Holyland convicts' sentences. Supreme Court Justice Noam Solberg ruled that the convicts - including Olmert and Lupolianski - would immediately pay the fine they were ordered to pay, but would not begin serving their sentences until their appeal was decided.
The judge wrote: "The appeals are not idle appeals; they have arguments that deserve to be heard.".
The appeals case, therefore, belongs to next year.
Will the Supreme Court turn the tables? Won't some of them end up behind bars? Everything will be decided on the coming Day of Judgment.
