AG Mandelblit
Photo: Motti Kimchi
Erdan allegedly on police document of potential crimes
The minister of public security is reportedly on the police document from 2014 that collected information on possible crimes committed by elected officials; the information on Erdan is allegedly connected with his management of the 2014 Likud primaries.
Minster of Public Security Gilad Erdan, who oversees the Israel Police, is amongst the politicians whose names appear on a police document that summarizes preliminary suspicions and intelligence on various alleged crimes perpetrated by multiple MKs and ministers.
Israel's Channel 2 reported on Tuesday night that the information is apparently connected to the primary elections that the minister managed in 2014 and to donations that he received. Erdan himself was not investigated on the matter. At the time, he did not hold his current ministerial portfolio.
Sources in the police's Investigations and Intelligence Department emphasized that the information would not necessarily lead to a criminal investigation.
Gilad Erdan (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
At the beginning of the week, Channel 10 revealed that in 2014, Deputy Commissioner Meni Yitzhaki, head of the Investigations Branch, to prepare a document that would concentrate all the information the police held on suspicions of alleged crimes perpetrated by MKs and ministers. They alleged that such documents had not been prepared by Yitzhaki's predecessors.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit claimed that the document was prepared two years ago and was used for professional and operative needs only, "and not for collecting material on elected officials." He clarified that the police does not initiate intelligence-gathering on MKs or ministers without authorization from the state attorney or the attorney general.
