The Be'er Sheva District Court sentenced Dr. Giora Praff (Perry), a prominent doctor who was convicted of murdering his wife Esti Ahronovitz in Moshav Talmei Eliyahu in 2019, to life imprisonment. It was also determined that Perry will pay Ahronovitz's family a compensation in the amount of NIS 258,000 (approximately $70,500).
According to a report in the Times of Israel, Ahronovitz "began taking legal action against Praff as part of a financial dispute over household expenses. Praff went on a trip overseas for the 10 days before the murder, during which time Ahronovitz began moving his belongings into a separate room and hid his gun."
"When Praff returned home, Ahronovitz informed him that she would only return the gun to him after he moved out."
Praff was convicted of premeditated murder and not aggravated murder after the judges determined that it was impossible to determine with certainty what happened between the two in the room prior to the incident. According to the judges, "in the absence of any trust in the defendant's words, it is not possible to say why he did it - greed, the disintegration of the family unit, or feelings from another relationship."
However, it was clarified that there are no extenuating circumstances for Praff's murder and actions, since, according to the judges: "there is an important educational value in life imprisonment. The confession and remorse that save time is not enough."
"The defendant is an elderly man, a family man with no criminal record, a veteran of Israel's wars, a pleasant and empathetic doctor who volunteered around the world - and who used a gun to murder his wife," the sentence reads. "The question why in our generation there are still men who kill women is subject to research. As judges, our world is as narrow as the world of judicial action. Even though we emphasize with our fellow Jews, the judgment depends on the act and this was an act of absolute evil."
