Known criminal and former attorney Gur Finkelstein was named as a state's witness in the trial of Lt.-Col. (res.) Gal Hirsch, who was indicted last October on tax-related charges, Ynet reported on Wednesday morning.
Finkelstein ran a successful law firm and represented Hirsch and his business partners several years ago.
He was later indicted in connection with the attempted murder of his ex-wife's partner, the arson of the headquarters of the Church of Scientology in Tel Aviv and an attempt to harm the director of the Division for Licensing and Supervision of Construction of Tel Aviv, Shota Hovel.
While Finkelstein was initially acquitted of many of the charges, the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced him to eight years in prison in 2014. He successfully appealed the sentence but then attempted to hire a fellow inmate to murder a state's witness using cyanide.
For this, Finkelstein was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted solicitation of murder, obstruction of justice, attempted solicitation of sabotage with aggravated intent, weapons offenses and perjury and was sentenced to five and a half years in prison in 2015. He has since been released after serving his sentence.
Concealing millions in income earned through defense work
In the Hirsch case, Hirsch and his business partners are accused of conspiring to conceal millions of shekels in income that they had made working for the company Defensive Shield Israel Ltd. and providing services to the Georgian Defense Ministry, including security consulting, military training and mediating military equipment transactions, according to Ynet.