Israeli Witness Protection Program underway

Fight on organized crime stepped up as government, Knesset stand to give local Witness Protection Program official go-ahead. New bureau to act independently, provide witnesses with 24/7 protection, new identities

Reuters | Published: 02.11.08, 08:32

The Israeli Witness Protection Program is about to become a reality: Both government and Knesset are expected to pass the Witness Protection Program bill Sunday, thus ushering in what the judicial system hopes will be a new era of protecting the lives of state witnesses.

The past few years have seen several cases in which state witnesses were targeted by those wishing to silence them: Three state witnesses were murdered between 1998 and 2002; and more recently, in December 2005, a prisoner serving as a key witness in a murder trial, was murdered by cyanide poisoning on the eve of his testimony – while in police custody.

According to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth, the Witness Protection Program will assist those who turn state witnesses with assuming new identities and re-acclimating to their new lives.

Its inception, said the report, is aimed mainly to help law enforcement agencies to fight organized crime, considered one of the major threats on state witnesses' lives.

Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann and Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter will present the Knesset with the program's gist Sunday. The Witness Protection Bureau will be an independent one with an annual budget of NIS 100 million (about $27.4 million).

Sanction by a district court order, the program will provide state witnesses with around-the-clock protection, new identities – including plastic surgery if necessary, physiological counseling, relocation to foreign country etc.

Heading the committee which formed the Witness Protection Bureau's guidelines was State Prosecutor- designate Moshe Lador. More than three years in the making, Lador summed up the committees' work by saying "threatening witnesses is an expanding phenomenon, as is organized crime."

The program, he added, wishes to prevent people from refusing of recanting testimonies for fear of their lives.

Witness will be inducted into the program subject to the discretion of head of Police Intelligence and a senior member of the State Prosecutor's Office.