Sharon's son jailed for fundraising offences

The elder son of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon began a seven-month prison sentence today for illegal fundraising during one of his father’s campaigns.

Omri Sharon, 43, was mobbed by reporters and cameramen as he arrived at a Tel Aviv courthouse today. From there, he was taken to a prison in central Israel.

Sharon was one of his father’s closest advisers when the elder Sharon was Israel’s prime minister, from 2001 until he was felled by a stroke in early 2006. He was convicted of receiving more than £650,000 (€858,191) from groups in Israel and overseas for his father’s 1999 Likud Party primary campaign, amounts that far exceeded the legal ceiling for contributions.

The primary victory paved the way for Ariel Sharon’s election as prime minister in early 2001 and his re-election two years later. His son served as a member of parliament during that time.

Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma since his stroke, was investigated but not indicted.

The beginning of his jail term came a day after Ariel Sharon turned 80. Israeli media reported that Omri Sharon took his three daughters to school and visited his bedridden father, who remains in a Tel Aviv area hospital, before turning himself in today.

Under a deal with prosecutors, Omri Sharon pleaded guilty to falsifying corporate documents, perjury and violating party funding laws. In exchange, the state dropped charges of fraud and breach of trust but demanded imprisonment on the other counts the maximum term was five years in prison.

Despite calls for lenience following the his father’s devastating stroke, the court convicted Sharon less than a month later, in February 2006, with the judge calling the case against him a “swamp that must be dried up.”

The Tel Aviv district court rejected Omri Sharon’s first appeal last June, but cut his sentence from nine months to seven months.

Sharon’s lawyers pleaded with the court to consider the circumstances at the time of the offences – his mother was dying from cancer, and he was a newcomer to politics who was unfamiliar with campaign finance laws.

In January, the Supreme Court rejected his final appeal and upheld the sentence. Sharon was also fined 300,000 shekels (€52,811).