Court: Deri can't run for J'lem mayor

Ex-Shas chair asked to run despite conviction; Yishai: Decision a "blatant blow" to basic right.

By DAN IZENBERG, MATTHEW WAGNER
Yishai brill 248.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Yishai brill 248.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Aryeh Deri, the charismatic former Shas chairman who had high hopes of returning to political life by winning next month's Jerusalem mayoral elections, was told Thursday by Jerusalem District Court that he cannot run. Although his campaign headquarters indicated he might try to challenge the ruling, and Shas Chairman Eli Yishai said he expected Deri to do so, party insiders said an appeal to the Supreme Court was unlikely. They stressed, however, that Deri remained determined to make a political comeback. Deri, who served almost two years in jail for fraud and bribery, told Channel 2 after the ruling was announced that he didn't intend to appeal, because "I didn't wait on the sidelines for seven years to come back and divide the haredi community." "I thought that the courts would allow the people of Jerusalem to decide," Deri told reporters. Still, he said he wouldn't make any final decision until he had consulted with Shas mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Degel Hatorah's Rabbi Shalom Yosef Elyashiv. The deadline for registering one's candidacy for the November 11 elections is next Tuesday. Some polls had suggested Deri would have stood a good chance in the race. Another option open to Deri is appealing to President Shimon Peres for clemency, but sources close to Deri have rejected this possibility because it entails an admission of guilt. His spokesmen said that the ruling contradicted the principle of justice that punishment cannot be applied retroactively. "We are certain that a way will quickly be found to allow Rabbi Aryeh Deri to utilize his abilities and experience for the good of the Israeli public and the people of Jerusalem. We repeat our demand to 'let Jerusalem decide,'" his campaign headquarters said in a statement. Yishai branded the court decision "a blatant blow to the basic human right to vote and to be elected." Addressing Deri, he added, "Shas is behind you." MK Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism), who will be the only haredi candidate for mayor unless Deri manages to find a way to run, refused to comment. Under an amendment to the Local Authorities Law (Elections) passed on November 26, 2000, anyone sentenced to jail for at least three months is assumed to have committed a crime involving moral turpitude and may not run for local authority office for seven years from the day he completes his sentence. On April 15, 1999, the Jerusalem District Court convicted Deri of accepting bribes, fraud, breach of faith and receiving something by deceit in aggravated circumstances. The Supreme Court upheld most of the lower court decision and sentenced him to three years in jail. He began serving his sentence on September 3, 2000, and was released after completing two-thirds of it in July 2002. Deri's lawyer, Zvi Agmon, argued that when Deri was convicted and jailed, the Local Authorities Law prohibited anyone sent to jail for more than one year from running for a local authority position for six years. He maintained that because more than six years had passed since his client's release from jail, and since a punishment for a criminal offense could not be imposed retroactively, Deri was now eligible to stand for office. But District Court Judge Moshe Sobel rejected these arguments. Deri, he noted, had originally been sentenced to three years in jail and was not due to have been released until 2003. Even if the old law were to apply, he would still not be able to run now. But when he was paroled, a development that could not have been foreseen, the new law was in effect. Furthermore, Sobel ruled that the concept of moral turpitude is not a punitive one. "The banishment for the time stipulated by the law is meant to assure that positions of public leadership will be filled by those whose moral level is appropriate to holding public office," he wrote. "Committing a crime involving moral turpitude is not consistent with the moral level required of elected officials, at least not until enough time has passed to blunt the impression created by the crime. "Only thus will public confidence in elected officials be guaranteed and only thus will the ability of the elected official to carry out his public mission in an effective and appropriate way be assured," Sobel wrote. Yosef Haim Halaf, a close aide to Deri and his official spokesman, said Deri's supporters saw the court decision as part of a deliberate effort to keep him out of the political arena. Others said they regarded it as a decision by the Ashkenazi-dominated justice system against a talented Sephardi public figure who is seen as a threat. "But Aryeh does not want to interpret the decision that way," Halaf said. "He does not want to walk down that road. "Aryeh said that he is returning to public service regardless of what happens with the mayoral elections. And that has not changed," Halaf added. Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.