Real estate developer David “Dudi” Appel will finally commence a
three-and-a-half-year prison term handed down in 2010, after the Tel Aviv
District Court rejected his appeal on Thursday.
Appel was convicted in
the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court in 2010 of three counts of bribery, but asked
the court to postpone his prison sentence pending the appeal.
The
businessman was found guilty of bribing former Lod mayor Benny Regev with NIS
1.3 million toward his campaign fund, in return for Regev promoting his
interests in building the Ganei Aviv neighborhood in Lod from 1996 to
98.
Appel formulated a plan, the indictment said, to promote Regev’s
reelection so that he could in turn advance Appel’s real estate interests with
respect to the project, which included 5,000 residential units.
In her
ruling, Judge Dvora Berliner said that bribing public officials was “like a
cancer, that destroys everything good.”
The State Attorney’s Office,
prosecuting, also appealed against the fine the lower court imposed on Appel,
asking for it to be increased, but the district court rejected it.
The
court also rejected appeals by Regev, who was sentenced to a one-and-a-half year
prison sentence for his conviction on accepting bribes, and Appel’s assistant,
Benny Tabin, who received a two-year sentence.
|