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Arab Man Who Posed as Jew For Sex Will Appeal
Rape Sentence
Updated: Thursday, 22 Jul 2010,
7:38 AM CDT
Published : Thursday, 22 Jul 2010, 7:38 AM CDT
(NewsCore) - A married Arab man jailed for
rape after posing as a bachelor Jew to dupe a Jewish woman into sex will
appeal his sentence, his lawyer said Wednesday.
Saber Kashour,
30, was sentenced to 18 months in jail on Monday after he pleaded guilty
to a charge of rape by deception, the Haaretz daily reported.
The
Israeli Palestinian, who is married and has two small children, slept
with a Jewish woman he met in downtown Jerusalem more than two years
ago, after pretending he was a Jewish bachelor interested in a long-term
relationship.
When the woman found out he was not a Jew but an
Arab, she filed a police complaint that led to him being charged with
rape and indecent assault. He later pleaded guilty to a charge of rape
by deception as part of a plea deal.
"If she hadn't thought the
accuser was a Jewish bachelor interested in a serious romantic
relationship, she would not have cooperated," Judge Zvi Segal wrote in
his verdict.
However, Kashour's 18-month sentence was slammed by
Kashour's lawyer Adnan Aladdin Wednesday as being too harsh.
"Eighteen
months in prison is too much," Aladdin told CNN, adding: "We are
appealing the very long sentence."
Kashour -- who was jailed for
two months after being charged then spent two years under house arrest
-- said the verdict was racist, Haaretz reported.
"For two years
I've been under house arrest for nothing," he said. "If I were Jewish
they wouldn't have even questioned me. That's not called rape. I didn't
rape her in the forest and throw her away naked. She agreed to
everything that happened."
While Kashour expressed regret for the
pain caused to his wife, he denied he did anything wrong.
"If I
told the woman I was a pilot and later she finds out that I was not a
pilot, then she goes and says that 'He raped me'? If I told her that I
was a millionaire and it turns out that I am a poor man, then she goes
and says that 'He raped me'?" he told CNN.
However, the Israeli
High Court did set a precedent for the charge of rape by deception in
2008 when it upheld a rape conviction in the case of a man who pretended
to be an official in the Housing Ministry. He promised women he could
get them an apartment if they slept with him.
"It is terrible,
but the law says very clearly that if someone has sexual intercourse
using deception about his identity to conduct the act, it can be
considered rape," said Leah Samael, a lawyer specializing in civil
rights and human rights cases.
However, the liberal Haaretz daily
quoted Elkana Laist of the public defender's office as saying that the
Jerusalem District Court had gone too far in its application of that
High Court ruling, "opening the door to a rape conviction every time a
person lies regarding details of his identity."
The argument that
obtaining sex by false pretenses is a form of rape has been used in
several countries, including the United States, AFP reported.
Israel's
Arab community numbers 1.3 million, about 20 percent of the population.
It includes the descendants of the 160,000 Palestinians who remained in
Israel after the 1948 war and establishment of the Jewish state.
Relations
between the two communities have always been controversial as Israel
describes itself as both a Jewish and a democratic state, with rights
for all its citizens.