Two Convicted of Stealing Nova Party Sound Systems, Sentenced to Prison

A Beer Sheva Magistrate's Court has sentenced Ram Shahin, 34, to seven years in prison and Daniel Hasson, 30, to 40 months for their involvement in stealing sound systems valued at over 1 million shekels from the site of the Nova music festival. The equipment belonged to Matan Lior, who was murdered during the October 7th Hamas attack.

The court emphasized the severity of the crime, noting that the theft occurred amidst the chaos following the attack and exploited the situation for financial gain. The ruling stated that one of the defendants "knew that the chance of anyone suspecting his intentions was slim." The judges wrote that "while the blood of the victims was soaking the fields of slaughter, the defendants chose to exploit the public's suffering and lay hands on abandoned property to make illicit money."

This is not the first time the Beer Sheva court has handed down significant prison sentences for property theft from the Nova festival site. Approximately six months prior, the court sentenced Meir Hajaj and Golan Jarbi to 38 months each for stealing property from victims and murder victims. They had confessed to aggravated theft after entering the festival grounds on October 8, 2023, a day after the attack, and stealing valuable items with another individual.

In that previous ruling, Judge Amir Doron also strongly condemned the moral depravity of stealing from the massacre site, stating, "The defendants failed in a particularly despicable and severe manner on a moral and values level." He added that their actions demonstrated "a gross trampling of every basic component of human compassion."

In addition to their prison sentences, Hajaj and Jarbi were also given suspended sentences and fined 45,000 shekels each.