Last update - 00:00 09/03/2007
Court approves plea deal with Parinyan reputed crime family
By Nir Hasson , Haaretz Correspondent
The Tel Aviv District Court yesterday approved a plea bargain in a murder case that would sentence two members of a reputed crime family to five years in prison.
Under the deal, Oded and Sharon Parinyan will also have to pay NIS 100,000 to the widow of Pinhas Buhbut, the man they were originally charged with murdering before the plea bargain altered the charge to conspiracy to commit a crime. The prosecution offered the deal about a month ago because it feared that it had insufficient evidence to win a murder conviction.
The Parinyans are suspected of hiring policeman Tzachi Ben-Or to murder Buhbut. Ben-Or was later killed in Mexico after fleeing Israel. The police's conduct in investigating the case was the subject of the Zeiler Commission's recent report criticizing police and proseuctorial malfeasance.
The court stressed the severity of the crime, but said it saw no need to intervene in the plea bargain because the five-year sentences were already close to the seven-year maximum for this offense.
After deducting time served while under arrest, the Parinyans will be able to apply for parole in another 20 months. They will begin their sentence immediately, after the court rejected their request for a one-month postponement to allow them time with their families. The Parinyans' attorneys welcomed the verdict, saying they had feared the court would reject the deal and impose a significantly stiffer sentence, as it did in the case of the two men convicted of murdering Ben-Or because he negotiated with prosecutors over turning state's evidence.