Ex-Agriprocessors Supervisor Who Fled To Israel gets 41 Month Sentence

Hosam Amara, a former supervisor at Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, was sentenced to 41 months in prison, substantially less than the 78 months prosecutors wanted. Amara’s sentence was at the top of the federal sentencing guidelines and the judge, Linda Reade was unwilling to go beyond them. She also ruled that Amara would get credit for 11 months he has spent in custody before pleading guilty and while awaiting sentencing. About 9 months of that time was served here in the US.

Ex-Agriprocessors Supervisor Who Fled To Israel gets 41 Month Sentence
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Hosam Amara, a former supervisor at Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, was sentenced to 41 months in prison, substantially less than the 78 months prosecutors wanted, the AP reported.

Amara’s sentence was at the top of the federal sentencing guidelines and the judge, Linda Reade was unwilling to go beyond them.

She also ruled that Amara would get credit for 11 months he has spent in custody before pleading guilty and while awaiting sentencing. About nine months of that time was served here in the US.

Amara’s attorney reportedly asked Reade to give Amara credit for the 21 months he spent on house arrest in Israel while he was fighting extradition. Reade denied that request.

“He’s a naturalized U.S. citizen. Anytime he wanted to come back and face the music, he could have gotten on the plane,” Read reportedly said.

Reade noted that Amara had facilitated the widespread hiring of “undocumented alien workers,” took cash bribes in exchange for hiring 15 such employees, and profited from a scheme in which he and his associates exploited undocumented workers by coercing them to buy used cars from them.

“He made money off of their plight,” Reade reportedly said.

Amara received about $500 per vehicle and allegedly threatened threatened a worker who cooperated during the 2005 DOT investigation into his car sales.

Amara also helped workers get fake IDs.

He fled to Israel with he help of Agriprocessors VP Sholom Rubashkin in 2008 to avoid arrest.

But Israel only arrested Amara in 2011, even though he was living openly in his family’s palatial home in Israeli Arab village of Kfar Kana (also spelled Kfar Qana).

He fought extradition but was finally extradited last year.

Former Agriprocessors employee Chad Root testified today that he personally witnessed Amara receiving oral sex from a worker in an office in Agriprocessors and that Amara made spoke to him about which female workers “put out.”

Root also testified that after Amara impregnated a female subordinate, Amara beat up her husband inside the Agriprocessors when her husband confronted him.

Root is a convicted felon who is currently in prison on drug and firearms charges. He said he was seeking a reduction in his sentence by testifying.

Amara’s attorney, Clemens Erdahl, argued that while Amara did impregnate the worker, everything else Root testified to was not believable.

Reade ruled that prosecutors did not have enough evidence to prove that Amara sexually exploited workers. Even if what Root testified to was true, she said, all it showed was improper workplace behavior. “[It’s] not the kind of thing I would increase a sentence for,” she reportedly said.

Related:

All Hosam Amara Posts.

Comments

[dh]

Just like I always said, Judge Reade is too easy on these animals.

[neighborgirl]

Amara, who first came to America in 1994 and is a U.S. citizen, said during sentencing he takes responsibility for his crime and only wants to be able to support his family. He said this was a “wonderful country and a wonderful place to raise children.”

“I want my children to go to college here and get an education,” Amara said.
Read more: http://thegazette.com/2014/01/31/agriprocessors-manager-sentenced-to-more-than-3-years-in-federal-prison/#ixzz2s1OZNopI

I expected Amara to give information about others involved in crimes in return for many charges being dropped. That hasn't happened.
I remember the Amara family stayed in Postville while building their house in Israel so their newborn would be a citizen and the rest of the family could get US citizenship

[Primetrades]

This pig impregnated a married woman ... Demanded sexual favors -

To me, this highlights rubashkins lack of moral & ethics that he hired this piece of shit to manage his business.

It's a shame he only got a few years. He should sit with Rubashkin in same jail for 27 years.

Sigh. I'm embaraased to be a religious Jew.

[state of disgust]

I hope this is not the end of the story. But I fear the sentence is typical of the appalling failure of the judicial system that has been all to familiar to those who have followed this saga from the start. Charges that should have been brought and were not, the violation of basic legal rights of underage employees blackmailed by Amara into buying a car as the price for being hired, the sexual abuse of minors, all scream for a far more substantial sentence.
What this case says is that violations of law that occur in an isolated corner of the Midwest and for the most part, out of sight of mainstream America, draw lower and less harsh sentences. I sincerely hope I am wrong, but fear I am not.

[Primetrades]

Well said - state of affairs. Appalling.

The expression of, " when you sleep with dogs you get fleas ", applies here.

I'm wondering who the dog in this situation is, the scum bag Rubashkin or the Israeli Arab scum

[state of disgust]

Primetrades:

Shalom Rubashkin knew about Amara's violations and did nothing so long as he made his daily production quota. SMR is guilty of doing nothing when he could have stopped the abuse.

SMR forced Hosam's brother Mohammed out of Agriprocessors when he was found to have physically abused workers on multiple occasions. He could have done the same with Hosam but the thinking was that Hosam knew where all the bodies were buried at Agri and SMR didn't dare fire him.

So who is more guilty, the perpetrator or the man who could have stopped the crimes?

Both.