MK Bar-On reprimanded for double-voting affair
Ethics committee reprimands Bar-On for voting in Inbal Gavrieli's place in 2003, but does not determine whether Gavrieli had consented. Committee regards case as 'serious ethics offence'
In November 2008, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth unearthed images from videos dating May 2003 of the Knesset discussion on the financial plan presented by then Finance Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.
The video footage was published on Ynet. The videos show Bar-On voting for Inbal Gavrieli, while she stood next to him. Both were members of the Likud faction at the time.
The double-vote was made in one of the sessions prior to the one in which former MK Yehiel Hazan also voted twice and was convicted of that offence.
Hazan was sentenced to four months of community service and two months probation. Following the publications, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz decided to hold a police investigation into the affair.
Mazuz decided not to pursue a criminal investigation and turned the matter over to the Ethics Committee, whose members were given access to the footage filmed by the Knesset channel.
Bar-On claimed that at the time he had been a new MK, three months after having been elected, and was not yet familiar with protocol and work procedures. He explained that he no longer remembers the details of the event.
The Ethics Committee asserts in its ruling that it does not function as an investigative committee and therefore cannot determine whether the double-vote was done with Gavrieli's consent.
At the same time, it was decided that Gavrieli should not have relied on false norms other MKs took it upon themselves to present.
The committee regards the case as 'a serious ethics offence' for which Bar-On deserves a severe reprimand. Bar-On himself was yet to respond on the decision.
