Police search MK Ghattas's home and office
Knesset legal advisor determines the Arab MK, arrested last week on suspicion of smuggling cellphones to Palestinian security prisoners in jail, cannot vote remotely while under arrest as he must be present at the Knesset to vote.
Police on Sunday searched the home and Knesset office of MK Basel Ghattas (Joint List), who was arrested last week on suspicion of smuggling cellphones to Palestinian security prisoners locked in Israel jails.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein authorized the search of Ghattas's office and police searched it on Sunday afternoon accompanied by the Knesset's officer and the parliament's legal advisor.
The Knesset's legal advisor, Eyal Yinon, also submitted an opinion to Edelstein determining that Ghattas should not be allowed to vote so long as he is under arrest. Edelstein decided to accept the recommendation.
"A member of Knesset who is under arrest, including house arrest or other forms of arrest that prevent him from arriving at the Knesset building, cannot participate in votes at Knesset committees or in the plenum," Yinon wrote.
According to the law, only an MK sentenced to time in prison is automatically suspended. The law does not specifically prohibit an MK under arrest from voting, and theoretically Ghattas could demand to be allowed to arrive at the Knesset to vote, but the new legal opinion will now prevent him from voting.
Yinon opined that Ghattas should not be allowed to vote remotely by asking another MK to vote in his stead or by using a paper ballot. He explained that Knesset members have to be present in order to vote, and that even MKs who may be sick, in mourning, abroad and missing for any other reason are not allowed to vote remotely.
Ghattas was arrested on Thursday after Knesset Speaker Edelstein stripped him of his parliamentary immunity, which protected him from arrest and police search.
His remand has been extended until Monday. "There are reasonable grounds to believe that releasing the suspect could be harmful to public security,” Judge Menachem Mizrachi determined.
Fellow Joint List MKs Jamal Zahalka and MK Hanin Zoabi also showed up at the court to support the suspect, who is the first serving MK to spend night under arrest.
During the remand extension hearing on Friday, Ghattas refused to divulge who provided him with the phones that he is believed to have smuggled to the prisoners, on the grounds that "he does not want to be a snitch."
