Just one day after a court accepted the terms of his plea deal in tax evasions charges, the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party said his trial was a result of discrimination.
Aryeh Deri received a suspended sentence and was fined NIS 180,000 for his crimes, which include fraud and breach of trust, perjury, tax evasion and money laundering.
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Shas leader Arye Deri sitting in front of his party's new anti government campaign
(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
In a speech to the Knesset Deri claimed he was prosecuted because of his Moroccan origins.
"I am not going anywhere," he announced, "I will remain at the head of the Shas party.
Deri, who was a close ally of former prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who himself is on trial for corruption, resigned his Knesset seat as part of his deal with the prosecution.
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Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Shas leader Arye Deri
(Photo: Knesset Spokesperson)
But he was not prevented from running again in the next elections and in fact indicated that he had every intent of doing so.
This was not his first brush with the law. Deri was convicted of receiving bribes and of breach of trust in 1999 when he stood at the head of the Interior Ministry. He served two out of a three-year prison term before his return to political life.
In his 50-minute speech on Wednesday, Deri lamented the difficulties he was subjected to during the criminal investigation into his recent crimes claiming his name was dragged through the mud as investigators celebrated their success in nabbing him once again.
"All manners of crimes were thrown into the air, including lies about my wife and my family," he said. "But despite the police knowing early on that most allegations against me were untrue, they continued to spill my blood," he said.
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Convicted Shas leader Arye Deri and his wife Yaffa in the Jerusalem Magistrate Court
(Photo: Oren Ben-Hakun)
The Shas party posted a video earlier this week, depicting a religious woman and her son, while in the supermarket, unable to purchase a bottle of juice and disposable dishes while an Ashkenazi man was buying cat food."
"We go hungry while they buy food for their cats," was the message in the controversial video that raised angry reactions on social media and in the press.
The campaign targeted the governments decisions to impose taxes on disposable dishes in the aim of decreasing plastic waist that is harmful to the environment.
The government also imposed additional taxes on sweetened soft drinks in a move it described as protecting the health of predominately low income children.
Shas has long presented itself as the representative of the "underprivileged" Sephardi population sidelined by the Ashkenazi elite.
When the Shas campaign was launched Deri and his wife were vacationing in an expensive hotel in the Swiss resort of St Moritz.
Shas has asked to appoint the party leader to a consultant's position, which would grant him access to the Knesset.
First published: 14:35, 02.02.22