Court ramps up speeding penalty on bad-boy Likud MK Hazan
Lawmaker faces 3-month conditional suspension after caught driving 142 kph (88 mph), 52 kph above the limit
Raoul Wootliff is a former Times of Israel political correspondent and Daily Briefing podcast producer.
Scandal-plagued Likud MK Oren Hazan received yet another blow to his reputation Sunday when the Beersheba District Court ruled to suspend conditionally his driving license for three months, compounding a NIS 1,500 ($416) fine he has already received for driving 142 kilometers an hour (88 mph) in southern Israel last December.
Hazan was ordered to pay up by an Eilat court in May after he was caught going 52 kilometers (32 miles) above the speed limit late last year on his way to the Red Sea resort city. At the time, his license was suspended for 30 days while he awaited a decision.
The state prosecution, however, appealed the decision, arguing that the severity of the transgression, along with Hazan’s history of driving offenses, called for a punishment stricter than a mere fine. The appeal sought to impose an additional month-long driving ban on Hazan followed by a six-month conditional suspension.
The court partially accepted the appeal, agreeing a month-long suspension was appropriate but ruling that the 30-day ban Hazan had already served obviated the need for a further penalty. In addition, noting previous convictions for driving offenses, the court handed Hazan a three-month conditional suspension that will come into effect if he is found guilty of further breaches in the next two years.
The appeal detailed 18 previous convictions brought against Hazan. Those include five charges of speeding, four for driving without a seat belt, two for parking illegally, two separate convictions for double parking, two charges for failing to produce a license and registration, one for using a mobile phone while driving, one for not allowing pedestrians to cross at a cross walk, and one for driving off-road.
Responding to the decision, Hazan claimed victory over the fact that the court did not accept the prosecution’s demand of a further immediate ban.
“The court criticized the prosecution and rejected its appeal,” he said, claiming the case was brought against him as part of a “witch hunt” seeking to bring him down.
“They have failed. We won again,” he declared.
Hazan, who entered the Knesset in the last election, has become known as the enfant terrible of Israel’s parliament.
Shortly after he went into politics, a Channel 2 News expose alleged that Hazan had previously run a casino in Bulgaria where hard drugs and prostitution were allowed. He sued the station’s journalist Amit Segal for libel but the court rejected the bulk of the lawsuit.
Last month he was banned by the Knesset Ethics Committee from attending plenary and committee meetings for a week due to his intimidating behavior against a Meretz MK in an on-air TV interview, in a stunt he said was coordinated with the hosting television channel.
In December 2015, the Ethics Committee also suspended Hazan from participating in parliamentary debates for a month due to a series of complaints against him. In February 2016, Hazan was again suspended from the committee hearings, this time by his own Likud party after he skipped a plenum vote resulting in a loss for the party.
Hazan was also suspected of assaulting a senior official in the municipality of the West Bank town of Ariel in 2014 in an apparent dispute over a debt. After the city froze his bank account, Hazan went to the municipal office, where he allegedly cursed and pushed the municipal director.