Former deputy minister Faina Kirschenbaum was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday after she was convicted of bribery by the Tel Aviv District Court in March, in one of the worst public corruption cases in Israeli history that had already led to over a dozen convictions.
Besides skimming funds off the state budgets that Kirschenbaum granted to various public bodies, she was convicted of organizing a scheme, along with family members and members of Yisrael Beytenu, to receive free hotel rooms, expensive electronic equipment, well-paid jobs, and a range of other illegal quid pro quo benefits.
Kirschenbaum was Yisrael Beytenu Party director-general and the right-hand of its leader Avigdor Liberman from 2003-2014 and deputy minister from 2009-2014.
Her lawyer Giora Aderet called the sentence absurd and said he would appeal it to the Supreme Court.
Yisrael Beytenu responded that the party was disappointed by the sentence, which the party said was too harsh.
“This decision is strict and we hope the Supreme Court takes into account that Kirschenbaum has endured a long, exhausting legal ordeal for more than seven years and decides to shorten the sentence,” the party said.
Liberman, who is now finance minister, was not implicated in the case and was not questioned under caution.
But the Likud pointed out that taped testimony in the trial revealed that Kirschenbaum said she took the money “to satisfy the boss.” A Likud spokesman said Liberman was being coddled because he shifted sides on the political map.
The Likud spokesman said the sentence proved that it is wrong to “put the national treasury in the hands of the most corrupt person in the history of the state.”
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.