The Jerusalem District Court on Thursday sentenced former Chief Sephardi Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron to 12 months' probation in wake of his recent corruption conviction. The State Attorney's Office and Bakshi-Doron's attorneys had agreed on the sentence as part of a plea bargain. The rabbi was also ordered to pay a 250,000 shekel ($69,000) fine. Judge Zvi Segal noted in his ruling that "in light of the bargain, the defendant's medical condition, his advanced age and the assumption that he poses no danger to the public and will not commit additional offenses, I did not see fit to impose mandatory jail time." In May, Bakshi-Doron was convicted of charges including fraudulently receiving benefits, issuing fake rabbinical ordination certificates, and breach of trust. He was charged as part of a case that exposed how between 1999 and 2003, hundreds of fraudulent ordination certificates were issued to security officials seeking pay upgrades. The officials received between 2,000 shekels ($550) and 4,000 shekels ($1,100) per month for having been ordained as rabbis, which amounted to hundreds of millions of shekels paid out by the government over the years. During the four-year trial, Bakshi-Doron petitioned to suspend the legal proceedings several times over his deteriorating health. The 76-year-old is confined to a wheelchair and receives dialysis three times a week.
