Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court sentenced former footballer to heavy drug trafficking • According to the indictment, Assouline acted as a distributor in the messaging program "Telegram", operated a complete operation of customers and even transported drugs himself using a private motorcycle
Photography:
Gideon Markovich
Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court Judge Shamai Becker sentenced this morning (Thursday) to 19 months in prison for former footballer Lior Assulin, who admitted to thirty cases of drug trafficking.
According to the indictment, about three years ago, Assouline asked to join the "Telegrass Channel" in the Telegram widget "as a verified drug dealer".
At the time, Assouline took part in a "verification process" with the widget's administrators, in which he provided his phone number and the nickname he intended to use "Catalya Catalya".
After being verified by the app's operators, Assouline published his wares in the widget, using this nickname, among other things, as follows: "Dear friends, especially for you, we brought two varieties directly from the world repair provider: Alaska and Erez," 3: 300, 5: 500, 10: 900 ".
From the day of the verification until two months later, the day of Assouline's arrest, the latter received "dozens of inquiries from dozens of different people for the purchase of the dangerous drug he offered."
"The defendant would receive a request from a particular 'customer' and ask for verification by means of identification such as an identity card or driver's license, then there would be a correlation with the 'customer' quantity, preferred variety, price, delivery address and time of arrival. The dangerous drug was delivered to customers by The defendant or someone on his behalf ... ".
The indictment further clarified that at the relevant time, Assouline worked as an emissary for the Get Teksi company and provided his customers with the dangerous drug, among other things, using a scooter he owned and a box bearing the "company emblem".
It is further described that "at the end of the transactions the defendant used to greet his customers with a blessing of enjoyment of the dangerous drug he sold, and to the extent that he requested an upgrade accordingly on the channel", i.e. the customer would give positive feedback about the defendant or his goods.
In the sentencing, Judge Becker noted that Assouline did not undergo a therapeutic procedure regarding "disclosure of liability" and return to the beneficiary.
After March 2019, at the end of the arrest proceedings and when the connection between Assouline and the probation service was severed, a new criminal case was opened against him for possession of a cocaine-type drug.
The judge also did not accept the words of the probation officer, who clarified to the court that "... in the main case there was still no treatment procedure, and Assouline kept in touch and showed responsibility and did what was required of him, but he was not in treatment, not his fault ....".
The judge also wrote: "The third survey revealed that the same rehabilitative initiative expressed by the defendant did not fully materialize, since during December 2019 the urine tests he submitted indicated drug residues, one cocaine and the other MDMA. As stated - in two separate urine tests. Assouline did not take responsibility. Before a probation service for drug use, as reflected in his urine tests and denied that he had used drugs. He later claimed that "it is possible" that he used drugs as part of "social recreation" without being aware of it.
Judge Shamai Becker delayed Assouline's appearance in jail for 45 days to file an appeal