Mazuz disrupts Ramon trial

Menachem Mazuz, who has set his sights on the period following his current term and his natural desire to join the Supreme Court, certainly knows that Haim Ramon's return to the Justice Ministry would mark the end of his own term in office.

It's difficult to see how the man who heads the prosecution establishment fails to understand the implication of the message he conveyed to the judges of the man who the prime minister very much wants to see in charge of the next generation of Israeli judges.

The message is unequivocal: An acquittal would undermine me, and you will likely pay a price for it, as the person in charge of your promotion won't like to see the return of Haim Ramon – who has already clearly stated he will not be dragged by the nose.

In these establishments, so I was told, there is no need to say things explicitly; a wink is sufficient. Mazuz is familiar with the way things work on the inside, and nobody needs to give him a call.

The problem is that when a regular Joe conducts himself in a matter that may disrupt legal proceedings, a complaint can be filed against him, and if the police are negligent there's room for appealing this to the attorney general. Yet when the number one figure in the prosecution hierarchy behaves like this, we all face a genuine problem.

We can unhesitatingly say that the attorney general's statement relating to the "kiss trial," regarding the norms proper in a society that seeks to protect women against "harassers," is tainted by a blatant conflict of interest. First, because the attorney general is the one who would pay the gravest price should Ramon be acquitted.

Crude political considerations

Yet this matter is even graver: After all, some of the arguments in the trial relate to the conduct of Mazuz himself, or those under him, and Ramon's attorney Dan Sheinman has even argued that there's room to annul the indictment on the grounds that it contradicts basic principles of justice and legal decency.

These arguments were directed at the soft underbelly of the State Prosecution Office's, which in this affair committed deeds – with the knowledge or retroactive approval of the attorney general – that in any civilized country would have ended the careers of those responsible for them a while ago.

In England, elected officials or senior members of the executive branch would see the truck that coming to remove their belonging the next day already for much more minor matters. Turning a blind eye, as Menachem Mazuz himself knows, cannot be used as a defense by someone who claims he "didn't know."

It is a pity that crude, unsophisticated political considerations motivate people who we all expect to adhere to other kinds of norms. This may be fit for a prime minister, who already committed an ugly deed by attempting to influence the results of a trial by in fact "saving" the post of justice minister for his friend, the accused.

Yet what can be accepted as both kosher-yet- foul-smelling politics must not move over to the office of a person who one day wishes to become a Supreme Court judge.

What's certain is that once Ramon's trial is over, whatever the result may be, the law enforcement establishment would need to engage in plenty of self-reflection, and quite a few senior figures would need to find private sector jobs. At Dan Sheinman's firm perhaps.

Dr. Haim Misgav is an attorney and law lecturer