Police: Commissioner Danino told senior officer to hire lawyer charged with corruption
Senior police officer says Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino called to recommend services of lawyer Ronel Fisher, who currently stands at the center of a corruption scandal; Danino's office denies claim.
Among those arrested in connection to the case are former Maariv publisher Ofer Nimrodi; Eran Malka, a retired police superintendent from the national fraud squad; and former Tel Aviv district attorney Ruth David.
According to new information obtained by the police, some time prior to Fisher's arrest last year, a high-ranking police officer had legal problems and required an attorney.
The officer said he received a telephone call from Commissioner Danino, who recommended hiring Fisher. The officer apparently met Fisher but ultimately decided not to employ him.
"No one is saying that this is a criminal matter," said a source familiar with the investigation. "That said, if you are investigating, you have to investigate everything – and that means all the ties Fisher had to the police."
Danino's office dismissed the claims as imaginary. "The commissioner never recommended attorneys to policemen or officers, including in this case," it said.
Fisher was arrested last year, moments after taking possession of a suitcase filled with $150,000 in bribes that he said would be used to bribe police officers.
The chairman of the Ashdod port workers union, Alon Hassan, was responsible for the lawyer's arrest in a sting operation led by the Justice Ministry's Police Investigation Unit.
"Give me $150,000 and I will solve all your problems," Fisher allegedly told Hassan, the union boss at the center of his own corruption probe first revealed two months ago. When Hassan left the coffee house where he had Fisher, police swooped in to arrest the lawyer.
During his remand hearing, prosecutors claimed Fisher had used his connections to senior police officials, some of whom he had even represented, to pass information on to Hassan regarding the investigation into port corruption, as well as making an offer to put the investigation to rest.
Prosecutors also claimed that Hassan had received advanced warning from Fisher regarding a police plan to raid the port, giving port officials time to hide potentially incriminating evidence.
Attorney Ruth David, who held senior posts in the Justice Ministry and was involved in the decision-making process for sensitive cases, was arrested this month on suspicion of involvement in the affair.
The police internal investigations department suspects that she was involved in contacts with business people under investigation, and is suspected of leaking information that she received from Fisher.
According to a state witness, and information taken from Fisher's cell phone by police, she was also allegedly involved in some of the illegal activity committed by Fisher.
