Supreme Court sanctions Versailles disaster verdicts
Court denies appeals filed in wedding hall case of 2001 in which 23 people died, 300 injured; states verdict sending inventor of Pal-Kal method, hall's engineers to prison valid
The Supreme Court stated Wednesday that the Jerusalem District Court's verdict which sent Eli Ron, the inventor of the Pal-Kal method of construction, to prison, will stand as ordered.
In May of 2007 Ron, engineers Dan Shefer and Shimon Kaufman and marketing director Uri Pesach were convicted of involuntary manslaughter, negligence and battery for their part in the Versailles hall disaster of 2001.
Twenty-three people were killed and more than 300 people were injured in the disaster, which occurred after the floor of the Versailles wedding hall in Jerusalem – which was built with Pal-Kal – gave out from under the celebrants' feet.
A subsequent police investigation revealed that the Pal-Kal method of construction was never sanctioned by any official body, and that it did not meet any of the customary construction or safety criteria.
The Jerusalem District Court sentenced Ron to four years in prison. Shefer and Kaufman were sentenced to 22 months in jail, and Pesach was ordered to serve six months in prison.
All four defendants appealed the verdict, but the Supreme Court denied their appeal, ruling that all prison sentences stand.
