A day after Israel sent a former prime
minister to prison for the first time, a popular high-powered rabbi
convicted of corruption is set to enter jail to begin serving a one-year
sentence.
Yoshiyahu Pinto will begin his jail term for
bribing a police officer in the medical center of Ramle’s Nitzan Prison,
because of health issues.
He is set to enter the prison at about 1 p.m.
and will serve his time just a stone’s throw from former prime minister
Ehud Olmert, who began a 19-month sentence at Ramle’s Maasiyahu Prison
on Monday.
Last month, the High Court rejected an appeal
by Pinto, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi and kabbalist, for lenience on account
of his health situation.
Pinto, who enjoys an international following
among celebrities and business leaders as well as high-powered contacts
in the Israeli government and elsewhere, gave his last lesson to
followers Monday, telling them that nobody would “break our spirit.”
“We’ve been through serious illness and
haven’t been scared for a minute,” he said, according to daily Haaretz.
The way of God would be their real triumph, he added.
“We worried when there were problems, now
there are good things,” he said. “You don’t know how many good things
will flow from this
In May, the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced
Pinto to a year in prison and a NIS 1 million ($260,000) fine after the
rabbi pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain.
Under his plea bargain, Pinto agreed to
testify against Menashe Arviv, the former head of the police’s
anti-corruption unit, who is suspected of receiving benefits from
businessmen associated with the rabbi.
Pinto’s lawyers alleged to the State
Attorney’s Office that Arviv had accepted favors illegally and provided
secret information in return. Arviv was last questioned by police in
September. Charges have not been brought against him.
The scandal prompted Arviv to take an extended
vacation, and then, in February, to resign after 36 years of service in
the police, though he maintained his innocence.
The case was linked to the suicide in July of
police Brig. Gen. Ephraim Bracha, days after an Israeli news website
accused him of accepting bribes from Pinto.
Hours after his death, the Justice Ministry cleared Bracha of any wrongdoing.
Since 2011, Pinto, 42, who heads several
charity organizations and Torah study institutions in the coastal city
of Ashdod and in the US, has been the subject of a number of ongoing
investigations, both by Israeli police and the FBI.
The rabbi — whose followers have included Jay
Schottenstein, chairman of the American Eagle Outfitters clothing
company, and Israeli real estate mogul Jacky Ben-Zaken — was suspected
of embezzlement of funds from an organization he oversaw. According to
FBI suspicions, he was also the target of a blackmail attempt.