Ronen Sheikh, a former employee of the Haifa Municipality, established and operated telegram groups in which the sexual content of Israeli women was distributed without their consent.
"Showed complete indifference to the victims of the crime"
Photo:
Michelle Dot Com - Illustration
The Haifa Magistrate's Court today (Sunday) sentenced Ronen Sheikh, a former Haifa municipality employee, to four years and two months, who was convicted of multiple offenses of publishing sexual photographs without the subject's consent, invasion of privacy, advertising of prostitution and fraud services and breach of trust.
Sheikh will compensate the victims of the offense in the total amount of more than half a million shekels
Sheikh has set up, operated and managed groups and channels on the Telegram, which have served as a platform for the distribution of images and videos containing explicit sexual content of hundreds of Israeli women and girls, some of them minors.
The indictment in which the defendant was convicted contains 187 complainants.
Defendant distributed sexual content featuring the complainants to an audience of more than 100,000 Telegram users.
This is the most severe punishment given in Israel for offenses under the "Videos Law".
According to the amended indictment, filed by attorneys Itai Gohar and Moran Eshul of the State Attorney's Office's Cyber Department, in which she admitted as part of a plea deal, he used to distribute photos and videos of a sexual nature to Israeli women and girls, without their consent.
The photos included the personal details and personal profile of the women on social media, to prove to the group members that these are Israeli women who do not work in the sex industry.
Some of the victims came to the courtroom as part of the sentencing arguments phase, describing the difficulties that accompany them: social anxiety, sexual harassment on social networks, leaving frameworks, needing professional mental support, taking psychiatric pills, difficulty entering a public space, difficulty forming a relationship And in trusting members of the opposite sex and even suicidal attempts.
One of the victims even reported significant functional difficulty in entering the public space until recently she underwent plastic surgery to change her facial features, in order to avoid being identified on the street.
The cyber department of the State Attorney's Office sought to impose a six-year sentence on Sheikh, along with compensation for the victims of the crime and a fine to the state treasury.
The court ruled that "the defendant's actions are unparalleled in the history of the ruling so far. As stated, this involves distributing tens of thousands of sexual images and videos of 187 young women naked or performing a sexual act, without their consent. The sexual publicity reached a large audience of more than 100 A thousand users of Telegram, which is without a doubt the highest level of hardware.
"The defendant's actions were carefully planned, systematic, with the defendant creating groups and acting within them to promote the publications, and disguise his online activity, using multiple smartphones, unrecognizable SIM cards, undetectable digital currency, and more as detailed in the amended indictment facts.
"The victims of the crime are 187 young, Israeli women, in a wide range of ages, when from the affidavits before me, and from those who began to testify here, it appears that these are mainly young women, beginning their careers in life. Among the victims are three minors. Absolute to them, when he advertises them naked, he rudely invades the sanctuary of their privacy, while completely indifferent to the damage it will do to them, with all his eyes fixed on the advertising profit he produces. In this matter, I refer ... to the affidavits before me, to the psychological damage caused to the complainants, "Judge Shlomo Banjo wrote.
