A court sentenced an Israeli travel agent to 16 years in jail yesterday for the rape and sodomy of the former Miss World, Ms Linor Abargil.
The Tel Aviv district court said the sentence reflected what it called the "repulsive" offences committed by Shlomo Nour (43), who was found guilty in October of raping Ms Abargil at knifepoint in Italy before she won the title in 1998.
Ms Abargil, who was 19 at the time of the rape, was not in court.
Lawyers for Nour said they planned to appeal against the sentence, which could mean that Israel's High Court will have to assess whether Ms Abargil's celebrity played a part in the severity of the jail term.
"There is no doubt that the court took into account the fact that the plaintiff was a beauty queen when it decided on a punishment," a defence lawyer, Mr David Iftach, said.
The maximum prison sentence for a single count of rape in Israel is 20 years, but Nour's lawyers said the sentence was too harsh.
The assault occurred while Ms Abargil was on a modelling assignment in Milan. According to the indictment, she tried to find a flight home through Nour, who offered to drive her to Rome to catch a plane to Tel Aviv.
Instead, he drove Ms Abargil to a forest, pulled a knife on her, and stabbed her lightly several times in the chest and stomach before raping her.
Nour, who is Egyptian-born, had denied rape, saying he and Ms Abargil had had consensual sex. His defence was rejected by the court in October, when it found Nour guilty on charges of abduction for the purpose of a sexual offence, rape and sodomy.
Nour gained Israeli nationality after collaborating with the Israeli secret services. A former Coptic Christian, he converted to Judaism and married an Israeli woman.