Israel’s state prosecution to appeal convicted rapist’s early release

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The decision to grant parole to convicted rapist Alon Kastiel will be appealed, Israeli state prosecutors announced Thursday.

Haaretz has learned that the appeal will center on the claim that the board did not hear opinions from all the women that Kastiel was convicted of assaulting before making their decision, as is stipulated by the law. The appeal will be filed next week, and the victims in the case have been notified.

On Monday, the board approved Kastiel’s request for an early release. Kastiel, who was convicted of sexual offenses against four women, has served just under four years of his four year and nine month sentence. The board delayed his release by a week in order to allow the state prosecutors time to file their appeal. The decision to delay the release was made on Thursday.

The decision on Kastiel’s release passed with a majority vote, supported by retired judge Erica Priel, Tina Gantus and Oren Harzman. Board member Tal Gidoni, a social worker, opposed the move, arguing that the board should wait until all the women Kastiel assaulted had had a chance to voice their position on the issue before the board.

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The majority opinion, written by Priel, says that the board did not ignore the women who were affected by this crime, and was aware of the pain and suffering caused to them by the prisoner. “Regrettably, that cannot be changed, which is why this time, after the prisoner has completed treatment over a period of nine months, with only a short part of the sentence remaining, we decided not to let these women’s positions be a decisive factor.”