Last update - 00:00 18/06/2007
Court approves concurrent terms for jailed crime boss Rosenstein
By Nir Hasson and Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondents
The Tel Aviv District Court sentenced jailed crime boss Ze'ev Rosenstein to a three-year concurrent prison sentence for planning to kill underworld rivals Ya'akov and Nissim Alperon.
The court convicted Rosenstein earlier this month of conspiracy to commit murder, after he confessed to the crime.
In exchange, prosecutors agreed to recommend the court sentence him to three years in prison, to be served concurrently with the 12-year jail term that he is currently serving for conspiracy to smuggle and distribute drugs in the United States.
The court in essence gave its final approval to the plea bargain, the practical significance of which is that the convicted crime boss will not spend a single day in prison for planning to kill the Alperon brothers.
According to the indictment, Rosenstein said that he feared the Alperon brothers planned to kill him, and this drove him to hire two Colombian citizens to serve as hit men on his behalf.
Rosenstein was taped by police investigators explaining to his partner in the conspiracy, Baruch Dadush, where the brothers lived. In August 2001, the hired guns arrived in Israel and met with Dadush, who paid them NIS 2,000 as an advance on their wages.
Soon after, however, Rosenstein decided not to proceed with the plan to murder the Alperons.
Prosecutors explained at the time of Rosenstein's conviction earlier this month that they had come under pressure from their American counterparts, who wanted the conspiracy to murder charge to be part of their own plea bargain with Rosenstein because Rosenstein had demanded its inclusion. The Israeli prosecution initially objected to this request, but eventually agreed.
In March, Rosenstein was transferred to Israel from his prison in the U.S. to serve the remainder of his sentence close to his family.
Rosenstein, who has been described by police as "public enemy number one," was extradited to the U.S. a year and a half ago and put on trial for his role in smuggling 700,000 pills of Ecstasy into North America. In January, he signed a plea bargain with the U.S. prosecution under which he received a 12-year jail term in exchange for admitting to conspiracy to traffic in drugs. The deal also allowed Rosenstein to keep his assets.