Prosecutors want 17-year sentence for rabbi

US posecutors have asked a Washington, DC, Superior Court judge to sentence Jewish Rabbi Barry Freundel to 17 years in prison for videotaping dozens of nude women at a ritual mikvah bath.

Freundel, former spiritual leader of the prominent Washington Orthodox synagogue Kesher Israel, pleaded guilty in February to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism.

He is due to be sentenced May 15.

In addition to prison time, Freundel could be ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

The rabbi, now 64, was arrested last October and charged with six counts of voyeurism after investigators found hidden cameras in the National Capital Mikvah’s shower room and in his home.

He was later fired from Kesher Israel, the congregation he had led for 25 years and which abuts the mikvah.