Netanyahu
Photo: Marc Israel Sellem
AG urges court not to turn PM into suspect in submarine affair
State tells High Court petition seeking to question PM in case potentially harmful to investigation’s development, inappropriate and unjustified; says ‘every fact and finding’ on matter cannot be published.
Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has asked the High Court of Justice to throw out a recently submitted petition asking it to instruct the state prosecutor to investigate Prime MInister Benjamin Netanyahu as a suspect in the submarine affair.
While police have carried out a wave of arrests of suspects closely associated with Netanyahu in the affair—commonly referred to as Case 3000—the prime minister himself is not considered a suspect in the corruption-riddled purchase of military vessels for the IDF from the German ThyssenKrupp company.
Mandelblit urged the court to categorically reject the notion of turning Netanyahu into a suspect, arguing that the investigation was still in full swing and that judicial intervention would be entirely inappropriate.
“The time for judicial review will come, insofar as there's a need for it, only at the end of the road after law enforcement officials have concluded their work," read a statement written by the state, which also claimed that the petition was merely “part of a campaign designed to exert pressure on the law enforcement authorities.”
PM Netanyhau (Photo: Marc Israel Sellem)
The statement also pointed out that it had been hinted in the petition that Netanyahu had been shielded from being questioning under caution “due to his high stature.”
Deriding the charge as baseless, the statement said it was “inconsistent with case law regarding judicial intervention in a pending investigation.”
It went on to debunk the claim by citing other examples in which Netanyahu has been questioned under caution in two other probes involving bribery offences, according to which he is suspected of receiving illicit gifts from rich donors (the so-called Case 1000) and holding talks with Yedioth Ahronoth owner Arnon Mozes (the so-called Case 2000) on receiving more favorable coverage in return for promoting legislation against Yedioth's rival newspaper Israel Hayom.
The charge was also fallacious, the statement said, “because it’s also inconsistent with the simple reality that the prime minister was investigated under caution in other ongoing cases for which there was justification at the right time.”
The statement also added that there was no intention to divulge the details of the submarine affair’s development, raising objections the unnecessary publication of details surrounding it, which it said could be detrimental to the investigation’s progress.
Avichai Mandelblit (Photo: Yariv Katz)
“The law enforcement authorities cannot publish every minute facts and findings they have collected and the steps they are taking or intending to take.”
That said, the attorney general, the statement added, was cognizant of the importance of informing the public about the matter, saying “the matter is considered from time to time, subject to the needs and development of the investigation.”
It further highlighted the fact that in February it was already declared the the prime minister was not a suspect in the affair and promised that further details would be published “in accordance with professional considerations of the law enforcement bodies in relation to the influence of the publications on the investigation and its proceedings, taking into account all necessary factors including the public’s right to know.”
The attorney responsible for the petition to place Netanyahu under the microscope however, urged the court to “convene an urgent meeting about the petition. In order to avoid the loss of the public’s trust in the rule of law.”
