High Profile Case Alleging Bribery, Illicit Relations at Top of Justice System Closed

By: Aryeh Savir

A high-profile case alleging the payment of bribes for the sake of promotion in Israel’s judicial system and illicit relations between senior officials which rocked the country a year ago was closed with no indictments.

The police launched an investigation in January 2019 during which it arrested the head of Israel’s Bar Association Effi Naveh on suspicion that he exploited his power to influence the process of appointing judges.

According to the allegations, Naveh had used his power to promote the appointment of a judge while he was subject to a conflict of interests and while committing an offense, and also attempted to influence the promotion of a judge to the District Court while committing an offense, but the promotion failed. A senior female lawyer was involved in this failed attempt.

The magistrate under suspicion, Etti Kreif, was also questioned on suspicion that before her appointment she was involved in an attempt to illegally encourage her promotion as a magistrate to the District Court.

However, Deputy State Attorney Shlomo Lemberger decided Sunday to close the investigation file against Naveh and Kreif.

After hearing all the arguments raised during the several hearings, Lemberger decided that “there is no reasonable chance of conviction in this case” and that “despite problematic factual findings that emerged from the investigation – findings that allegedly amount to criminal acts – the case must be shelved.”

Kreif committed to not seeking a judgeship again.

Member of Knesset Betzalel Smotrich, who has been campaigning for reforms in the judicial system, said that “we are all now witnessing in real-time how the most powerful body in the country operates when there is no supervision, no criticism, and no one can restrict it: just open a case, move a person aside and close the case.”

H called to “return the judiciary to its natural size, and to restore the separation of state powers as it should be.”

In an unrelated development, TPS reported that the leadership that led the weekly protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday evening they were collapsing the tent they erected in front of the Prime Minister’s residents on Balfour Street in Jerusalem, ending nine months of a campaign that was meant to oust Netanyahu from there.

Various anti-Netanyahu organizations banded together and led weekly protests calling for Netanyahu’s resignation, primarily on Balfour Street in Jerusalem, at times in Tel Aviv and other locations, and at times violent.

The demonstrators had a mixture of messages, including charges that Netanyahu was harming Israel’s democracy, that he was on trial for criminal charges and therefore should step down, that he had failed in his leadership during the Coronavirus crisis, that he should cease with his plan to declare sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and an assortment of various other demands and messages.

      (TPS)