The indictment, filed by Adv. Neta Funis-Elharar from the Central District Attorney’s Office (Criminal), states that the owners of the construction company, which is a development company, entered into a contract with various contracting companies for the execution of a Tama 38 project in the city of Rehovot. The accused were brought to the project at various stages and assisted in bringing various workers and suppliers to the site. Subsequently, due to the collapse of the company responsible for the construction, the company withdrew from the project, leaving behind unpaid debts to suppliers.
The indictment states that the accused exploited the distress of the developers, who tried by every possible means to advance the project and bring it to completion, while in practice they were blocked by the accused who extorted them and prevented them from continuing their work, all until various sums of money were paid to them. In order to instill fear in the developers, the accused used, among other things, the surnames of criminals Jaroushi and Hariri, saying, “You will have no choice, you will talk to me. Behind me stand the Jaroushi family and the Hariri family.”
Despite the developers’ attempts to continue the project’s work, the accused demanded that the developers pay them hundreds of thousands of shekels, and when they refused, they threatened that no contractor would enter the project site. To fulfill their threat, one of the accused demanded that three different contractors with whom the developers had contracted cease their work at the site, even though the developers had agreed to transfer payment for the alleged debt, but refused to remove a warning note registered in the Land Registry.
Following a series of threats, the developers transferred an immediate payment of approximately NIS 21,000 to the accused, but later refused to surrender and turned to the police.
The Central District Attorney’s Office attributed to the accused in the indictment offenses of joint extortion by threats and joint collection of protection money.
The prosecution stated that “the actions of the accused, as described in the indictment, harm public order and the proper conduct of businesses and a person’s ability to work normally without being threatened and extorted, which shakes their day and causes them distress and paralysis of work.”
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