The Magistrate's Court today (Wednesday) sentenced the owners of the Saadi Coffee company to 11 months in prison and another senior executive at the company to nine months of community service - after they were convicted of bribing a senior official in the Chief Rabbinate.
The verdict determined that over several years, the defendants systematically gave a senior member of the Chief Rabbinate sums of money that accumulated to tens of thousands of shekels in cash, in addition to fruits and vegetables worth thousands of shekels - usually in preparation for Rosh Hashanah and Passover.
In parallel with providing the funds, the senior rabbinate official handled the issuance of kosher certificates for the imported products.
The verdict stated, among other things, that the defendants' conduct "could create a sense of an ongoing routine of violating the law, weaken norms of compliance, corrupt the public service, and erode public trust in it.".
It was further determined that "the very fact that the benefits of enjoyment are provided, on a regular basis, by an entity that seeks to receive a kosher certificate for its products in favor of an entity responsible for providing kasher certification, is liable to harm the degree of trust given to the kasher certification mechanism and the proper functioning of its operations, in a sensitive issue that carries with it importance to many.".
