Vice Premier Haim Ramon
Photo: Michael Kramer
Parliamentary committee urges limiting wiretapping
Knesset-appointed commission of inquiry recommends curbing wiretapping custom, subjecting procedures, individuals involved to severe scrutiny
The custom of wiretapping must be used only in specific cases and those tasked with performing it, as well as the judicial protocol authorizing it, must be subjected to severe scrutiny, the committee of parliamentary inquiry into the matter said Sunday.
The committee was formed by the Knesset following the wiretapping of Vice Premier Haim Ramon by the Police, during their investigation of the sexual harassment case against him.
Ramon claimed the wiretap was illegal and the State Comptroller's Office was also called to probe the matter.
The committee, led by Knesset Member Menahem Ben-Sasson (Kadima), who heads the House Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, probed the legal infrastructure for wiretapping, as well as the police use of the practice and the courts' enforcement of wiretapping laws.
The committee also probed the courts' application of checks and balances and the observation of due process and procedures by bodies external to the police, the likes of the State Prosecutor's Office.
In July of 2007, the judge who reviewed Ramon's legal team's claim, that the prosecution withheld information pertaining to the wiretaps, stated that "although some failures in the way the police and the prosecution handled the materials are evident, the assertion that they deliberately withheld evidence from the defense in unsubstantiated."
