Jerusalem Magistrate Court Judge Ohad Gordon this morning, Sunday, imposed six months of community service and an NIS 5,000 ($1,386) fine on Niv Assaraf, and three months of community service and an NIS 2,500 ($693) fine on Eran Nagauker.
The judge accepted the prosecution's request to delay the execution of the sentence in order to allow it to appeal the leniency of the sentence.
The two were convicted as part of a plea bargain, after they faked the kidnapping of Assaraf. According to the indictment, at the beginning of April 2015, the two traveled to Kiryat Arba and during the trip, Assaraf told Nagauker that he intended to "disappear" following his recent break-up with his girlfriend, so that security forces would search for him, and publication of the incident would cause his girlfriend to worry about him.
When they arrived at Kiryat Arba, the two agreed that Assaraf would hide in Kiryat Arba, while Nagauker would leave Kiryat Arba and then stop at the side of the road. He would wait a while and then report to a passing policeman or soldier that his friend had gone to a nearby Palestinian Arab village and had not come out.
Shortly after that, Assaraf came to a hiding place near the entrance of Kiryat Arba, equipped with a mattress and food, as planned. Negauker set out for Route 60, where he stopped his car, took air out of the car to simulate a flat tire, returned to his car, turned around and headed back to Kiryat Arba.
When he arrived at the entrance to Kiryat Arba, Negauker noticed a police vehicle and, in accordance with the plan, ran towards a policeman and gave him a false report that his friend had left his vehicle and walked toward an Arab village.
Only about eight hours later, during a Shin Bet interrogation, Nagauker told investigators about Assaraf's whereabouts and that he was in the wadi, equipped with a mattress and canned goods.