Uri Lupoliansky
Uri LupolianskyIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Tel Aviv District Court Judge David Rosen announced Monday that the sentencing of former Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupoliansky and ex-councillor Avraham Feiner Monday morning will be given at a later date, because both men are ill. Both were found guilty in the Holyland corruption scandal.

Earlier reports said Judge Rosen had intended to go ahead with the sentencing even though Lupoliansky was hospitalized Sunday with pneumonia. His lawyers asked the court not to postpone the sentencing.

The sentencing of Lupoliansky and Feiner was split off from that of the rest of the people convicted in the Holyland affair, after the prosecution requested this, and because of the health problems both are suffering from.

Judge Rosen added that he intends to be lenient with the two in view of their failing health as well as the fact that they did not take bribe money into their own pockets. In Lupoliansky's case, the money went to the Yad Sarah charity, and in Feiner's, the Beit Malka educational institutions for girls.

"Are we only in charge of the law? Do we not possess humanity?”, the judge said in response to the prosecution's requests for punishment. “It is time to show generosity and mercy toward people who did not take money into their own pockets.”

The prosecution asked for a six year sentence against Lupoliansky, who was convicted of taking 2.5 million shekels in bribes. In Feiner's case it asked for 3-4 years. He was found guilty of taking 700,000 shekels.