Israeli businessmen get lengthy prison terms in Georgia

Roni Fuchs and Ze'ev Frenkel were convicted of attempting to bribe Georgia's Deputy Foreign Minister, sentenced to 7 years in prison.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Prison jail generic (photo credit: Courtesy)
Prison jail generic
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Two Israeli businessmen were sentenced to lengthy prison terms by a Georgian court on Friday after being convicted of attempting to bribe a deputy finance minister.
The convicted men, Ronny Fox and Ze’ev Frenkel, were sent by a court in Tbilisi to seven years and six and a half years respectively, and ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
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The men were arrested by Georgian police four moths ago after being accused of offering the country’s deputy finance minister five million dollars in order to hasten a 100 million dollar compensation payment owed to Fox and a Greek partner.
The compensation payment was owed due to the cancellation of an oil and gas distribution contract with the Georgian government, the News 1 website reported.
The arrests took place immediately after the mens’ meeting with government official, which was secretly reported. Clips from the meeting have been aired on Georgian television. Police raided the restaurant where the men were sitting.
Fox’s attorney said his client would appeal the ruling, and sue the state of Georgia at the European Court of Human rights.
The attorney accused Georgia of violating international law and the human rights of his client.