It sounds like some of these Shas supporters are no different from Ron Paul robots--their hero can do absolutely no wrong. They are probably a lost cause unless G-d himself intervenes to shake some sense into them.
It's not even shas supporters really, in this case. It's actually just the Orthodox Jewish establishment, who claim him as "one of their own" since he's a haredi Jew with a black hat, even though the people writing the articles and the groups that produce this publication in no way follow Sephardic rabbis or go along with anything Rabbi O. Yosef says.
There have been many instances in the past of the frum establishment trying to cover up for frum criminals because it shames the community (so they try to claim they did nothing wrong, so that people will think there is no corruption in the frum society or that people will not target their community over it, or members within will not lose faith in rabbis or the Torah ideals). In some cases it's been truly evil behavior because covering up these crimes led to the same criminals committing the same crimes over and over again on helpless victims. However in some cases, they really do expose unfair treatment of frum criminals (such as the chabad Rabbi Rubashkin, who got an excessive sentence by an antisemitic court).
So how do we determine when these kind of reports are honest and telling the truth, and when it is just the same old reflexive "defend the frum person at all costs" puff pieces trying to stand up for the honor of orthodox communities by covering up criminals? I think tag mechir's comment could be right, since he says these horrific things about settlers and he was an Oslo supporter and Arafat supporter, it's pretty easy not to believe it when they excuse the criminal behavior he went to jail for. But how to actually refute it with the facts? I don't believe the public is really privy to the facts in the case of his extortion and bribery that he committed as a Shas politician. And of course we all know the Israeli govt is evil and a framejob is not at all beyond something they would do. - So that makes it harder to convince people about this issue.