JERUSALEM — A three-member parole board decided Wednesday that former Shas Party leader Aryeh Deri could be freed from prison on Monday, after serving two years out of a three-year sentence for bribery and fraud.
Deri, emerging triumphantly from the hearing at Ma’asiyahu Prison, said he would “devote a lot of time to public work,” and his family, and that he has no immediate plans to return to politics.
“I pray to God for success on my continued path,” Deri told a group of supporters who serenaded him outside the prison.
While the law prevents Deri from accepting a cabinet post for a decade or running for the Knesset for seven years, he could play a key behind-the-scenes leadership role.
Deri stepped down as Shas leader only in response to political pressures after he was convicted in 1999 by the Jerusalem District Court of accepting a bribe, fraud and breach of faith while serving as a cabinet minister.
His trial ended a nearly decade-long investigation and court proceedings that followed accounts in the Israeli media accusing Deri of wrongdoing while he served as an interior minister and head of the Shas Party.
In deciding to parole Deri, board members Judge Eli Sharon, psychologist Yisraela Yacobovitz and social worker Michal Shachter found that his release would not endanger the public.
The ruling noted that it had turned down previous requests for parole due to the “severity and circumstances of his incarceration.”
The panel also cited Deri’s good behavior at Ma’asiyahu Prison, his leadership role toward other inmates and his studies at a yeshiva in nearby Be’er Yaacov.
Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein and the State Attorney’s Office have told the parole board they do not oppose Deri’s release.
Even on parole, Deri will still be technically considered a prisoner for the final year of his sentence and will have to check in with law enforcement officials once a month.
Shas party leaders quickly hailed his impending release.
“This is a good day for the people of Israel,” said Shas leader and Interior Minister Eli Yishai. He urged Deri to resume political work and mindful of the popular Deri’s potential threat to his leadership, said he would “do everything I can to unite the movement.”
An Israeli television station reported that Deri intends to return to politics in some fashion, whether in a new joint leadership with Yishai, or in a new haredi party led by top Sephardi rabbinical figures.
While deciding to parole Deri, the three-member panel has yet to set the terms of his release, or whether he will be able to travel abroad or have to attend a rehabilitation program.
Even after Deri is freed, the legal efforts he launched in November 2000 to clear his name after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction, will continue.
Deri has two court cases pending. The first is a request to the Supreme Court for a new trial.
The second is a petition to the High Court of Justice, demanding that Rubinstein, the attorney general, order police to investigate the prosecution’s key witness, Ya’acov Shmuelevitz.
In both actions, Deri’s lawyers, Nevot Tel-Tzur and Yigal Arnon, maintain they have new information proving that Shmuelevitz lied to the Jerusalem District Court about a legal action against him in Switzerland.
It was Shmuelevitz who testified that Deri had received bribes from three of his friends at Jerusalem’s Lev Banim Yeshiva, where Shmuelevitz was once treasurer.
Tel-Tzur said a police investigation against Shmuelevitz would shed light on his allegedly dishonest nature and that, in turn, would help convince Supreme Court President Aharon Barak to grant Deri a new trial.
Recently, the High Court of Justice issued a show-cause order instructing Rubinstein to explain why he is unwilling to order police to investigate Shmuelevitz.
Previously, the court ruled that Shmuelevitz’s testimony against Deri was “as firm as a rock” and blasted Deri’s attorneys for casting aspersions on him.