The Haifa District Court has convicted Mazid Hamdan of bribing Ze’ev Dolinsky, a former senior personal adviser to then-President Reuven Rivlin, as part of a plea deal.
According to the amended indictment, filed by the Tax and Economic Prosecution Unit, Hamdan, a resident of Yanuh-Jatt near Acre, worked to advance private individuals’ requests before government agencies, often for payment. He used his long-standing acquaintance with Dolinsky, which dated back to their time as Likud activists, to promote his own financial interests and those of his clients.
Between 2018 and 2020, Hamdan paid Dolinsky at least NIS 6,000 in exchange for help with requests to government ministries and public bodies, including on planning and construction, licenses, entry permits to Israel and medical matters. Dolinsky used his public position and his connections with government officials to advance the requests.
Hamdan also worked with another defendant in the case, Marwan Rayan, to bribe Dolinsky in an effort to overturn the results of Health Ministry licensing exams that two of Rayan’s relatives had failed.
Judge Mohammed Ali convicted Hamdan of bribery after he admitted to the charges. Under the plea deal, both sides will ask the court to sentence him to six and a half months in prison, to be served as community service, along with a suspended sentence and a fine to be set by the court.
The admission does not determine the guilt of the other defendants, and proceedings against them are continuing.
Earlier this year, another defendant in the case, Nissim Cohen, a former parliamentary aide to then-MK Yitzhak Vaknin, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after admitting to multiple counts of bribery and money laundering. The Supreme Court later reduced the sentence to 22 months on appeal.
