Yehuda Spiegel, former deputy director of the Ministry of Health, will face sentence Wednesday in the district court here, where he was convicted of accepting a bribe. He was a leader of Hungarian Jewry in this country and one of the leaders of the National Religious Party.
Mr. Spiegel and three other men were accused of demanding and receiving bribes in connection with the award of a contract for the erection of a 30,000,000-pound ($10, 000, 000) Government hospital near Tel Aviv. The Ministry of Health was in charge of planning and building the hospital. Spiegel was head of the Ministry committee that awarded the contract. He was one of four defendants in the trial. A second of the accused was also found guilty and is to be sentenced Wednesday. Two were acquitted.
During the trial, it was disclosed that the money received as a bribe was to have been used for the construction of a yesbiva in the South of Israel, under the auspices of the National Religious Party. Mr. Spiegel was a member of the party’s committee in charge of building the yeshiva. Commenting on this testimony, the judge presiding at the trial said: “The purpose for which this money was received does not alter the fact that it was a bribe.”
The prosecution today demanded imprisonment for both Spiegel and A. Yaroni, a contractor who was also convicted in the case. Defense counsels, however, asked for a suspended sentence, pleading that the mere fact that a person of such public position has been convicted is punishment in itself.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
