As reported in the March 2015 issue of Jewish Times Asia, Rabbi Barry Freundel, the former spiritual leader of a prominent Orthodox synagogue in Washington, US, who pleaded guilty to 52 counts of misdemeanour voyeurism, has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison for videotaping dozens of nude women at a ritual bath.

“You repeatedly and secretly violated the trust your victims had in you, and you abused your power,” Senior Judge Geoffrey Alprin of D.C. Superior Court said at the sentencing, the Washington Post reported. Alprin also fined Freundel more than US$2,000.

Prosecutors had sought a 17–year sentence after Freundel pleaded guilty in February to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism. Freundel’s lawyers sought community service. Each count carried a maximum penalty of one year in prison and fines of US$1,000 to US$2,500.

Freundel was given 45 days for each of the 52 counts. He will serve the sentences successively, amounting to nearly sixand-a-half years.