The average prison term for convicted traffickers in women last year was 33 months, compared to 54 months in 2005 and a maximum sentence of 16 years, according to a survey by the Hotline for Migrant Workers of the judiciary's treatment of traffickers in women in 2006.

The report was written by attorney Naomi Levenkorn, a pioneer in the struggle against the trafficking of women in Israel and one of the foremost authorities in the field. After examining dozens of verdicts, verdicts on appeal, civil suits against traffickers and rulings on arrests and releases, Levenkorn concluded that as a result of prosecutorial and judicial conduct, "the trade in women was, and remains, a profitable business for traffickers and for state coffers."

Twelve out of 58 individuals charged with trafficking in women in 2006 had previous convictions for trafficking, procuring prostitutes or running brothels. Levenkorn believes that because their sentences were light and did not include large fines or compensation payment, the previous convictions had no deterrent effect.

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The light sentences were usually the result of "hasty" plea bargains, according to the report. About two thirds of the cases that were closed in 2006, or 19 out of 30, were plea-bargained.

In most of these, the trafficking charges were struck from the charge sheet. Levenkorn claims the courts accepted the terms of the plea bargains without questioning. According to the Hotline's figures, the most lenient bench in sentencing traffickers in women was composed of Tel Aviv District Court judges Shlomo Timen, Tchia Shapira and Sarah Brosh.

None of the seven people who appeared before this panel on charges of trafficking in women, false imprisonment or procuring was sentenced to a prison term exceeding two and a half years, according to the report.

Levenkorn also found that in 2006 the country's courts continued to ignore the victims' rights to receive monetary compensation from the traffickers. The state levied fines totalling about NIS 160,000 on traffickers, while the total amount of compensation awarded to the victims was NIS 314,000 divided among 30 women. Only 15 percent of the women actually saw any of that money, or any part of the NIS 1.6 million awarded to them in civil suits. According to Levenkorn, that is partly because in most cases the state did not obligate the traffickers to deposit the money.

In a particularly egregious example of judicial conduct toward the victims of trafficking, the report cites the case of Gal Sher-Tov, a former deputy head of investigations in the Eilat District police, who forced a trafficking victim from Uzbekistan to have sex with him in a
police cruiser under the threat of deportation. Eilat's Magistrate's Court sentenced him to seven months in prison and no monetary punishment.

A Courts Administration spokeswoman said yesterday in response to the Hotline survey that "in general, the judicial system does not respond to such reports, which are intended to promote a specific agenda."