The Tel Aviv District Court last week sentenced Rabbi Uzi Meshulam, the radical Yemenite sect leader who held police at bay of six weeks last spring, to 10 years in prison, two of which were suspended.
Meshulam had been convicted of charges that included endangering lives, conspiracy, aggravated assault and possession and manufacture of illegal weapons.
Eleven of Meshulum’s followers were also sentenced to terms ranging from 15 months to four years on the same charges.
Meshulam and about 100 followers had barricaded themselves in a house near Tel Aviv on the pretense of protesting the government’s alleged “theft and sale of 4,500 Yemenite children” in the 1950s. They refused to surrender peacefully to police and eventually, one man was killed when security forces finally raided the house.
On Meshulum’s order, none of the defendants was in the courtroom for the sentencing.
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