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| Bagel seller in Jerusalem illustration |
A man received a harsh prison sentence for selling bread products without a license, according to court proceedings in Israel. The court has sentenced the man to 10 years in jail.
However, the pretzel seller, is expected to stay up to three years in prison due to sentencing laws. For years, Zaki Sabbach, 54, of Issawiya, accumulated about 700 thousand shekels in fines for selling pretzels and bagels in the Old City of Jerusalem without a license. Instead of paying the fines, Sabach chose to ignore them and accumulated punishments of 3,500 days in detention. However, the law limits the penalty of imprisonment to up to three years in this case.
Sabach argued that some fines were given to him despite the fact that he didn't sell any bagels, while other fines, he never received in person. His detention hearing was held in the Jerusalem Municipal Court two weeks ago. The Jerusalem municipality has agreed to accept 80 thousand shekels in exchange for dropping its claims against Sabach. Jerusalem judge Tamar Nimrodi reduced the amount even further to just 8,000. However, Sabach said that he does not have even 8,000 shekels, therefore, Sabach will remain in custody until he decides to pay the 8,000 shekels.
This is not the first time Sabach was imprisoned due to unpaid fines. In 2003, he was jailed for 11 months due to unpaid fines. In a strange twist, Sabach received 500,000 shekels compensation from the city, after they were unable to bring the alleged fines to court.