Israel’s former cabinet minister, Yitzhak Mordechai, received a one-and-a-half year suspended sentence Monday, after the court found him guilty last month of indecent assault of two women, reported Haaretz newspaper.
In some of the incidents, the court found that Mordechai had acted violently.
"I am innocent and I will prove that I am innocent," said Mordechai on emerging from the courtroom.
The prosecution had asked the court to give Mordechai a jail sentence and to rule that his crimes involved moral turpitude - a finding that would severely limit any future political career, said the paper. However, it had not asked for the maximum sentence, which would be seven years, “in light of Mordechai's distinguished record of service to the state,” said the paper.
Mordechai has held the defense and transport portfolios in two successive governments, and was also a prime-ministerial candidate in 1999.
The defense had asked that Mordechai get no sentence at all on the grounds that his public humiliation in the media and the damage to his career were penalty enough, the paper said – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
