Last update - 00:00 25/06/2007
Tel Aviv Court reduces Omri Sharon's sentence by two months
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent
The Tel Aviv District Court reduced the sentence of ex-MK Omri Sharon by two months. Therefore, Sharon will go to prison for seven months in addition to the nine-month probation and NIS 300 thousand fine he received. In a 2-1 majority, the court judges decided not to convert Sharon's jail time into community service.
Sharon pleaded guilty over one year ago to a series of charges related to his father's 1999 primaries campaign, including fictitious registration of corporate documents, lying under oath and violations of the election code.
Sharon's attorneys Dan Sheinman and Navit Negev appealed Sharon's sentence, arguing that the law was applied selectively in Sharon's case as other politicians who committed similar crimes were not tried, and therefore there is no precedent for the severity of the sentence.
The attorneys also argued that the court ignored the character witnesses that testified on his behalf as well as the fact the he confessed and that he was going through difficult times at the time following the death of his mother, Lily.