Israeli ex-PM son sent to jail

Israeli Supreme Court denies sentencing appeal filed by former prime minister's son, following 2006 conviction of falsifying corporate records, campaign financing offenses

Beit Ul Moqaddas Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal by former Knesset Member Omri Sharon, son of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, thus not overturning his 2006 conviction for falsifying corporate records and campaign financing offenses.

Sharon was ordered to start serving his seven-month prison sentences in one month's time and pay a NIS 300,000 (about $80,000) fine.

District Court judges Ze'ev Hammer and Yehudit Shitzer, however, disagreed, citing actual prison time should be imposed, since the evidence showed Sharon was acting out of personal interests for his father election in the 1999 Likud primaries. The affair, dubbed "the false associations affair" was first published by Yedioth Ahronoth in 2001.

Originally sentenced to nine months in prison, Sharon's sentence was somewhat commuted following Prime Minister Sharon's stroke in late 2005.