Last update - 00:00 08/12/2006
Supreme Court overturns Rabbinical Court jail sentence
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch on Friday morning rescinded a Netanyah-area Rabbinical Court decision to jail a woman for 30 days for contempt of court.
In her ruling, Beinisch said the woman's sentence was disproportionate despite her "intolerable behavior," and that rabbinical judges needed to warn her that her actions during the hearing could lead to a prison sentence.
The Rabbinical Court session took place on Tuesday. Rabbinical judges M. Amos and D. Bardugo presided over the hearing of a divorce filed by the woman against her estranged husband.
According to the protocol, the rabbinical judges asked the woman a number of times to refrain from approaching them.
She ignored their calls and starting shouting at them at which point a security guard was called to remove her from the room.
After she was removed, the rabbinical judges sentenced her to 30 days in jail.
"As a result of the violent behavior of the woman towards the court and the profanity aimed at the rabbinical judges," Amos and Bardugo wrote in their ruling. "This is not the first time the woman has acted inappropriately and she had behaved with disrespect during the previous hearing."