A Palestinian man was sentenced to ten years in prison Sunday following his conviction for sexually assaulting a woman whose family would not allow to marry him.

The West Bank resident was convicted in Nazareth District Court of sexual assault, conspiracy to commit a crime and entering Israel illegally.

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According to the charges, the man made contact a year ago with his victim, a resident of northern Israel, and asked her to marry him. However, the woman's family did not agree to the marriage.

The two maintained a relationship via telephone, and at some point the man demanded she meet him at the Nazareth market, claiming he had indecent photos of her. The woman agreed to meet him, and upon her arrival at the market, the man called his friend who had been hiding, and the two men bound her body and head with tape and shoved her into a cave. There, the defendant sexually assaulted her and threatened her.

At the sentencing the judges said "there is no doubt that the perpetrators actions are repugnant and outrageous. Among the overall sentencing considerations we must take into account increased severity in sentences for sex crimes, all the more so when the sex crimes are committed under the aggravating circumstances of carrying them out in a isolated cave and with the assistance of another man who joined in the lowly plot."