Gerusalemme: arabo condannato a 10 anni di carcere per aver venduto ciambelle senza permesso


Zaki Sabah selling beigele outside the Old City.

Sintesi personale  

Sapete già  chi è Zaki Sabah. Nir Hasson ha scritto un articolo su di  lui su Haaretz. Sabah ha  60 anni , soffre di diabete ed ha sette figli . Per 15 anni ha venduto ciambelle arabe   a Gerusalemme senza  permesso. Per le sue azioni criminali  riceve multe giornaliere da ispettori comunali, tutte  non pagate  .  Solo raramente  il Comune mostra tanta determinazione nel perseguire i propri obiettivi. E 'stato deciso  di impedire a Sabah di continure la sua attività  e finalmente  il Comune ha vinto. Sabah è stato condannato da un tribunale di Gerusalemme  a 3455 giorni di carcere o a pagare  una multa di 780.000 NIS. Il venditore  non ha quella somma  e quindi ha iniziato a scontare la sua pena. Egli condivide la cella con un altro detenuto , condannato a sei anni di carcere dopo essere stato trovato in possesso di 38 kg di eroina. Sabah avrà molte opportunità di incontrare  assassini e stupratori, spacciatori e prigionieri che hanno  investito e ucciso vittime innocent.Questi sono giorni di odio e di tenebre  dove possiamo vedere poco  e non vediamo nemmeno noi stessi. La città della Gloria una volta diceva di essere governata  dalla legge e dalla  giustizia, ora  è  diventata una prostituta.Se  un Ebreo e non un arabo fosse  stato denunciato  per aver venduto   ciambelle senza permesso, nessuno avrebbe trattato  la sua vita  come un pezzo di pasta.La stessa legge vieta di  condannare qualcuno al carcere in contumacia. Sabah non era presente quando è stato condannato a 10 anni di carcere. Chissà, forse, se il giudice lo avesse visto , sarebbe stato più clemente. Forse.Ma gli arabi non sono di solito visti  qui anche quando sono  vicini. Sono sempre "presenti assenti", anche quando sono malati  e con tanti bambini .

 A tale of twisted justice for Jerusalem's most hapless pretzel guy

If a Jew and not an Arab had been caught selling bagels without a permit, no one would have twisted his life around like a chunk of dough.

By | Jul. 25, 2013 | 2:25 PM | 7
 
You already know Zaki Sabah. Nir Hasson wrote about him in Haaretz. Sabah is a 60-year-old Arab father of seven who suffers from diabetes. For 15 years he has been selling beigele ‏(Arab-style bagels‏) at Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate without a permit. For his criminal doings he receives daily fines from municipal inspectors. These now number in the hundreds, all unpaid. Only rarely does the municipality exhibit such determination in pursuing its goals. It was bent on removing Sabah’s beigele cart from the area, and finally achieved victory after Sabah was charged in a Jerusalem court.
His sentence was handed down last week, but went unreported in the media. Such stories always get pushed aside. However, my wife was in her car the other day, listening to Gabi Gazit’s radio program. In total disbelief, she related the incident to me.
“I’m not sure I really heard well, or whether I just imagined it. Take a guess, what do you think his sentence was?”
I hesitated a bit: “Don’t tell me he got a jail sentence?”
“Oh, indeed he did, but for how long?” she persisted.
“Maybe 30 days,” I guessed, thinking I was probably exaggerating.
“You’ve come out looking like a fool again,” sighed my wife.
Justice Tamar Nimrodi sentenced Sabah to either 3,455 days in prison or a fine of NIS 780,000. The beigele seller doesn’t have that kind of money, and has therefore started serving his sentence.
He phoned his attorney, Amir Schneider, from jail, sharing his experiences so far. He shares a cell with another inmate who was sentenced to six years in prison after being caught in possession of 38 kg of heroin. Sabah will have many opportunities to meet murderers and rapists, drug dealers and prisoners who ran over and killed innocent victims. He’ll get to know them well, but which of them will have a comparable sentence?
Why should I complain about the light-headed judge, who chose this case of all cases for bringing the full brunt of the dry and musty law to bear. Instead, I’d like to comment on Jerusalem, from where, on a clear day, one can see the entire area surrounding Sodom. But these are days of hatred and darkness, in which we can see little, not even ourselves. And what a sight we make! The city of glory, once said to be faithful, ruled by law and justice, has now become a harlot.
Are there any judges left in Jerusalem? This sentence is but one of several other groundless and mystifying ones that were handed down recently. If a Jew and not an Arab had been caught selling bagels without a permit, no one would have twisted his life around like a chunk of dough.
The same dry law forbids sentencing someone to prison in absentia. Sabah was not present when he was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Who knows, perhaps if the judge had actually seen him she would have been more lenient. Perhaps.
But Arabs are not usually seen here even from close up. They are always “present absentees,” even when they are already exhausted and sick, surrounded by children.  

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East Jerusalem bagel vendor freed from prison

After 17 days imprisonment and a public uproar, Zaki Sabah, sentenced to ten years in jail, is released.

By | Jul. 29, 2013 | 6:27 AM | 17



Zaki Sabah, the Jerusalem bagel vendor who was sentenced to ten years in prison for unpaid fines, was released on Sunday after the prosecution decided to no longer pursue imprisonment.
Local Affairs Court Judge Tamar Nimrodi, who sentenced Sabah to ten years, called in Sabah's attorneys and the prosecution for an urgent meeting. With Nimrodi's recommendation and the consent of the municipality of Jerusalem, the meeting ended in the decision to release Sabah.
Sabah and the municipality will renegotiate how Sabah will pay his debt to the city. The arrangement was reached after it was discovered that the number of days Sabah was to serve in prison was miscalculated, according to sources in the municipality.
The Jerusalem municipality argued that Sabah never completed an application for a vendor's license, while Sabah insists that he applied for one time and time again but was always rejected.
Sabah who for years sold bagels illegally by the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem's Old City accumulated fines totaling hundreds of thousands of shekels. He says he did not receive all the tickets and that some of the tickets were issued on days he was not selling. Sabah never paid his fines.
Three weeks ago, Nimrodi issued an arrest warrant for the 254 files opened against Sabah for peddling without a license. The thousands of tickets he received since 2005 had ballooned to fines totaling 731,910 NIS. Because the nonpayment of a fine has a prescribed option of a few days in prison, the number of days that had accumulated reached 3,554, meaning 10 years in prison - all for operating without a license. Sabah spent 17 days in Jerusalem’s Rimonim Prison before his release. 
The reports of the sentence in Haaretz and on 103 FM radio created a wave of public responses. Several citizen groups organized to pay the sum needed for his release. Attorneys volunteered to represent Sabah. MK Zahava Gal-On appealed Attorney General. A Facebook page in support of Sabah popped up. These protestations likely influenced the Jerusalem municipality in the decision to free Sabah. Sources in the municipality added that if Sabah would now apply for a license, his request would be treated "seriously."
"I'm not dangerous, I never harmed anybody, it was just my cart," Sabah said after his release. Even his cell neighbors didn't believe his story, and he felt in danger: "They laughed at me in jail and said, 'you must be leading us on. Because of bagels? You must be an undercover policeman.' They placed me in a dangerous situation."
Despite his ordeal, Sabah intends to return in a few days to Jaffa Gate to sell bagels. "What am I asking for? I'm no thief or anything. All I want is to make a living, take care of my chi

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