Tel Aviv – In a dramatic development, the High Court of Justice on Monday ordered the postponement of the plea bargain of Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, which had been scheduled to be confirmed in court later this week.
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The court has ordered the state to provide further explanations of its decision to cut the deal in which it reduced the charges against Pinto so he would testify against a former top police official, and has frozen the deal until more explanation is provided.
The decision did not terminate the plea bargain.
Pinto was investigated in the past for allegedly bribing police officials. In mid-September, an indictment was filed with the Tel Aviv District Court against Pinto as part of a plea bargain for him to testify against former Lahav 433 chief Menashe Arbiv.
Associates of Pinto allegedly gave Arbiv a series of bribes including, a discounted apartment in Tel Aviv for Arbiv’s son, assistance in attaining US visas for his immediate family and free nights in a Manhattan hotel.
Arbiv, who was essentially the former head of the “Israeli FBI,” resigned from his post on February 9 over the scandal, though he continues to claim his innocence and charges that Pinto is corrupt and manipulating the state.
Pinto returned to Israel in May from the US and was interrogated by the police, likely including the use of polygraph tests, as part of a final round of confirmation over whether his allegations against Arbiv were sound.
The plea bargain includes Pinto pleading guilty to a reduced indictment and the state agreeing not to ask for more than a year of prison time.
During the February negotiations for a plea bargain, the deal appeared to be falling apart over the questionable veracity of Pinto’s allegations and his demand that any indictment against him be dropped.
Pinto is well known both in Israel and the US, a descendant of two Sephardi rabbinical dynasties and the founder of the Shuva Israel Yeshiva.
He was listed as the seventh-richest rabbi in Israel last year by Forbes Israel and has served as an adviser to a battery of Israel’s elite.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
Rabbi Pinto may indeed be a great talmid chachom but he is clearly a criminal. It is completely understandable if you don’t like hearing that – the truth is not always pleasant.
Defending him perpetuates a long, public and sickening chilul hashem on a grand scale.
He must be disavowed for once and for all for the sake of kovod hatorah, kovod harabbonim and to eliminate a chilul sheim shamayim brabim.
WE SHOULD ALL WAIT FOR “JUDGEMENT “UNTIL THE TERMS OF THE PLEA ARE MADE PUBLIC AND CAN BE EXPLAINED