Monday, June 1, 2015, 18:30 On Monday, June 1, one day prior to the scheduled
Yinon Levanon, Hy”d
presentation of the plea bargain with their son’s murderer, Yinon Levanon’s family turned to Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and requested that she prevent the lenient plea bargain.
Levanon, Hy”d, a 28 year-old Susiya resident at the time of his death, was killed when a Bedouin smuggling workers without proper documentation over the Green Line, drove across a solid line, evaded a police car and passed 10 vehicles before colliding head-on with Levanon. For more details see here.
“Tomorrow a deliberation will take place at the Be’er Sheva District Court on the shameful plea bargain in which the State is asking that a murderer be given three and a half years imprisonment and be required to pay financial compensation,” wrote Levanon’s family to Shaked. “This is a lenient penalty, and anyone with sense cannot tolerate such contempt for human life and trampling the law. We demand that the State’s position in this case with regards to both the wording of the indictment and the penalty be commensurate with the facts of the incident.”
“Yinon’s blood cries out,” they added. “It cannot be that a murderer who drove recklessly, in violation of the law, fled police, and caused a tragic accident comes away with such a lenient penalty. As Justice Minister who oversees the judicial system and the Attorney General’s office, we request that you immediately intervene and not allow this injustice to occur. We implore you to use your authority to guide and to set the policy for the prosecution and the Attorney General’s office. And to treat us and Yinon fairly.”
On Tuesday, June 2 Levanon’s family is expected to appear at the Be’er Sheva District Court in order to protest the plea bargain which the Attorney General’s office arranged with their son’s murderer.
On Sunday, May 31, Honenu attorney Adi Kedar, who is representing Levanon’s family, demanded that the Attorney General’s office cancel the plea bargain. Kedar found it difficult to understand why the Attorney General’s office did not accuse the defendant of murder and endangering human life in a traffic lane, but rather accused him of minor offenses and in the end agreed on a particularly lenient plea bargain.