The elderly woman was bound and dragged to the basement: the robbery that ended in six years of imprisonment

Three robbers arrived one morning at the home of a 79-year-old woman in Ramat Gan, after one of them posed as a municipal worker and claimed he had to check the electricity. After she opened the door, the two entered the apartment, knocked the elderly woman down, bound her hands, and dragged her to the basement. Mahmoud Al-Masri remained outside, but the Tel Aviv District Court determined that he was the "driving force" behind the robbery and its "planning brain and director." In the sentencing, handed down recently, the court sentenced Al-Masri to 70 months of actual imprisonment and 25,000 shekels in compensation to the victim.

According to the amended indictment, to which Al-Masri confessed, he conspired with two others to commit the robbery. Around one o'clock at night, he drove to the West Bank area via the Maccabim crossing on Route 443 to pick up his accomplices. In the morning, the three arrived at the scene in Ramat Gan. Al-Masri remained in the vehicle while his two partners approached the apartment. During the event, he spoke on the phone with one of them and instructed him on how to convince the woman to open the door.

One of the two knocked on the door, claiming to be a municipal worker. The woman initially refused but eventually opened the door. The two entered, pushed the woman to the floor, bound her hands behind her back, and laid her on a bed. Simultaneously, Al-Masri continued to instruct them by phone. He ordered them to ask where the safe was and even scolded them for not bringing duct tape to gag her and prevent her from screaming. After the woman said she did not have a safe, 1,200 shekels, a credit card, and an ID card were taken from her purse. Al-Masri instructed the two to continue searching for the safe and its keys in the drawers, her bag, and her clothes. Later, the two dragged the woman down the stairs to the basement, threatened her not to try to escape or file a complaint, and took two antique flutes and a wristwatch. Afterward, they returned to Al-Masri's vehicle, and the three fled the scene.

Following the robbery, the woman was evacuated to Sheba Hospital suffering from bruises and cuts. The victim impact report revealed that the effect of the event lasted far beyond the physical injuries. She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorder, and suffers from hyperarousal, restlessness, chronic fatigue, and concentration difficulties. It also emerged that the woman installed security systems in her home, rarely goes out unnecessarily, and has difficulty trusting strangers. The Probation Service described the change that occurred in her: from an independent and socially active woman, she became a constantly anxious and frightened person.

In the sentencing arguments, the prosecution requested to aggravate Al-Masri's punishment, emphasizing that he drove the perpetrators, maintained contact with them, instructed them, and even scolded them for not bringing duct tape. Al-Masri's defense attorney requested to distinguish between his part and the part of his partner Jassan Rimawi, whom the court defined as the "main perpetrator." The defense requested to take into account that he lacked a criminal record, confessed, and is a father of three minor children.

Al-Masri himself expressed remorse before the court. Judge Melamed rejected the attempt to minimize Al-Masri's centrality, determining that although the defendant remained in the vehicle, "his part is not marginal, but central and essential." The judge wrote that the crime of robbing the elderly has become a "national scourge" and that "tangible punishment is required that will clarify to the defendant and others like him that harming the elderly population carries a heavy price tag."