Alleged crime boss agrees to plea bargain over gas monopoly

Shalom Domrani charged over extortion campaign against businessman who wished to open a rival gas store in Sderot.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Total gas pipeline (photo credit: Reuters)
Total gas pipeline
(photo credit: Reuters)
Senior alleged southern crime boss Shalom Domrani agreed to a plea bargain with state prosecutors in Beersheba on Monday in a case centered around the monopoly of the gas distribution business.
In March, Domrani and several associates were charged over an extortion campaign against a businessman who wished to open a rival gas store in Sderot.
The businessman received death threats and was subjected to arson attacks designed to discourage him from going ahead with his business plans, which would have competed with an existing gas business linked to Domrani, police said.
As part of the bargain, Domrani was handed down a seven-month prison sentence – although he will only need to serve two of those, as he has been in custody for five months already.
“[The police] said that the gas extortion case will carry years of prison,” Domrani's attorney, Moshe Sherman, told Channel 2 News after the agreement. “At the end of the day, five months will be removed from his sentence... and he will go back to prison for two months.”
Domrani became the subject of an undercover investigation by the Economic Crimes Unit lodged after the businessman filed a police complaint.
Five of Domrani’s associates also confessed to their role in the affair on Sunday as part of the plea bargain, and received various prison sentences.