After ten years of investigation and seven years of trial, which included about 300 meetings:
the flagship affair of the police and the prosecutor's office in the field of organized crime, will come to an end today (Tuesday).
Eight defendants in case 512, including criminals Yitzhak Abergil and Avi Rohan, will be sentenced in the Tel Aviv District Court.
Case 512 is the story of Israeli crime in the 21st century, and its subject - the activities of Abergil's organization during the years 2006-2002, the first years after the murder of his brother, Yaakov, in June 2001. Following the murder, Yitzhak Abergil declared conflict with other criminal groups - The Abutbul family, the Ohana and Zeev Rosenstein families.
Abergel's organization operated in a unique structure, and included dozens of managers and soldiers who were organized into criminal groups by specialization in various areas of crime and by territories.
The groups operated in an orderly hierarchy and in cooperation with each other, in order to take over the criminal world in Israel and wage a bitter war against those they defined as their enemies.
This war culminated in the years 2003-2002, with a series of murders and violence targeted by known criminals such as Felix Abutbul, Hanania Ohana, Zeev Rosenstein and others.
The war included an assassination attempt on Rosenstein at the Keshet restaurant, an assassination attempt on Plummer Square, and of course the explosion at Change on Yehuda Halevi Street, in which three innocent civilians were killed - Naftali Meged, Rahamim Tzruya and Moshe Mizrahi, and dozens more were injured.
Yitzhak Abergil, Photo: Roni Shitzer
Initially, these cases were investigated as separate cases, without any connection between them being identified.
However, the police later realized that there was actually a connection between the cases, and the nature of the investigation changed, while combining arms between the various units.
The breakthrough came after U.S. authorities in 2007 recruited YM to serve as a state witness, as part of an investigation into drug offenses.
During his interrogation, it became clear that the information that YM provided to the Americans may also help the authorities in Israel. In the field of violent offenses.
The next development came at the end of 2011 and during 2012, after contact was made with YA, an Israeli who was imprisoned in Brazil. Then, for the first time, the police received detailed information, which could also be translated into admissible evidence of the unsolved violence.
"The Great War"
Since the indictment was filed, some of the defendants have signed plea bargains.
Meir Abergil, the brother of Yitzhak and Yaakov, was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison, minus the 42 months he ran in the American case and the days of his detention, and is now free.
Moti Hussein, a confidant of Yitzhak Abergil, also signed a deal.
He pleaded guilty to causing the death of criminal David Bitton, and was sentenced to five years in prison.
In the ruling, Justices Gilia Ravid, Yaron Levy and Shai Niv ruled that the "Great War" claimed many lives, including the innocent.
As for Yitzhak Abergil, it was proven at trial that he headed the criminal organization and ruled it without Egypt.
He managed the organization's activities and defined its goals.
He was convicted of, among other things, the offenses of the head of a criminal organization, three offenses of premeditated murder in the assassination attempt on Yehuda Halevi Street, and many other offenses, including importing and trafficking drugs.
The prosecution is asking the court to sentence him to three cumulative life sentences and another 40 years of cumulative imprisonment.
Rosenstein is released.
There was a purpose.
Photo: Yossi Zeliger,
Ofer Bohdana, a soldier in the Ashdod group of Abergelites, was convicted of participating in placing the charge on the roof of the change in Yehuda Halevi.
The prosecutor's office wants to sentence him to three life sentences in total and another 5 years in prison.
As for Avi Rohan, who was convicted of aiding and abetting murder, the judges ruled - based on the statements of state witnesses - that he was present at meetings in Belgium, expressed interest in the assassination of Rosenstein and participated in financing the assassination operation on Yehuda Halevi Street.
Rohan was also convicted of importing and trafficking drugs.
The prosecution wants to sentence him to 42 years in prison.
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