Shaming does not always pay off. A resident of the Israeli town of Rehovot who falsely plotted against an apartment owner on a Channel 13 TV show will pay NIS 100,000 in compensation for defamation.
Judge Rafi Arnia of the Magistrate's Court in Rishon Lezion decided on the punishment following a lawsuit filed by the landlord through attorney Nahal Ozelbo.
In the TV segment, the landlord’s photograph was broadcast and the tenant – who was interviewed - presented the landlord as a sex offender, who allegedly spied on her in the apartment with hidden cameras and microphones.
Throughout a four-year trial, the landlord brought expert witnesses on his behalf who inspected the recording devices in the apartment and testified that the cameras could not be viewed remotely on the relevant dates from when the complainant was living in the apartment. The camera in the bedroom was not even connected to a recorder during that period and the microphones did not work.
Worse, the photos presented on Channel 13 which the renter claimed had originated on the cameras installed by the landlord, actually came from cameras installed in the apartment by the renter’s son.