Listen to this amazing story brought to you by Israeli Calcalist.
According to Calcalist, in 1998 Harel Hershtik, a 20-years old from Kibbutz Degania Bet, murdered Yaakov Sela, his mother’s lover whom he stole several thousand NIS from. Hershtik was caught. Instead of returning the money, he killed the man.
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In addition to the murder accusations, Hershtik was found guilty of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit murder, theft, fraud forgery, and impersonating another (after attempting to coordinate testimonies to construct an alibi for the murder).
Hershtik, now 45, was sentenced to life in prison, ending in May 2026. Earlier this year, he petitioned for early release on parole.
Hershtik’s early release was approved on the condition that he be watched including night house arrest with electronic constraint until the completion of his term in 2026.
In addition, Calcalist reports, he is the major shareholder of a medical startup, Scentech Medical, which he founded along with Dr. Ehud Cantor, while in prison, and American biomed investor Drew Morris, a member of a wealthy family involved in real estate.
The company developed a “breathalyzer” that will identify within a few seconds a wide spectrum of viruses and malignant diseases. The primary focus today is on detecting the coronavirus by breath.
Hershtik is waiting for the vote of the shelf firm NextGen BioMed, which is traded at about $42 million on the TASE, to be appointed the company’s CTO.
In April 2020, NextGen announced for the first time that it was investigating the possibility of merging with Scentech’s medical.
Since then, NextGen has been reporting on development progress at Scentech’s laboratory, as well as in hospital tests with verified Covid patients.
