Former head of Kol Al Arab found guilty of sabotaging online rival Asunara as part of plea bargain.
By YONAH JEREMY BOB
The Nazareth District Court on Wednesday convicted Nimare Suleiman, formerly head of information for the website Kol Al Arab, of illegally hacking into the computers and website of a competitor.The conviction was part of a plea bargain in which Suleiman admitted that he had hacked into the email accounts of workers at competitor Asunara.Suleiman only admitted to the crimes of an amended indictment that had reduced the severity of the charges he was accused of, which had included other actions of sabotage against the competitor.The plea bargain also stipulated that Suleiman withdrew his earlier denials of guilt and that he must meet with a court-approved evaluative expert to help determine what punishment would be recommended to the court.In light of the fact that the punishment would be at least somewhat dependent on the expert recommendations, which have not yet been made, the court explained to Suleiman that he could potentially withdraw from the plea bargain.The outstanding issue appeared to be that the state prosecutor wanted a conviction with imprisonment, although he was not opposed to him serving his time through community service.Presuming the expert and the court both endorse the idea of serving the sentence through community service, Suleiman would likely stick to the plea bargain, whereas he might reverse the deal if the court insists that the plea bargain would lead to imprisonment.Courts, in principle, are not bound by state prosecutors’s plea bargains, but rarely contradict them.