By DPA
Tel Aviv : A Tel Aviv magistrate's court sentenced Monday the son of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to seven months in jail for election fraud, reducing his original sentence by two months, Israeli media reported.
Omri Sharon, who was also fined 300,000 shekels ($70,000 dollars), had filed an appeal in March against the original sentence he was given for falsifying corporate documents, lying under oath to the state comptroller and violating the election law.
He committed the offences while fundraising for his father's 1999 Likud party primaries campaign and later while defending himself to the state comptroller against accusations that large parts of the donations had been illegal.
According to the indictment, Omri Sharon raised six million Israeli shekels (some $1.3 million) – more than seven times the 820,000 shekels allowed for primaries under Israel's election law.
He did so by establishing fictitious companies, which received payments for non-existent services, which in fact were donations.