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.
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