AG, citing fears of obstruction, Knesset debate snubs on Netanyahu probes

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has banned law enforcement officials from appearing before a Knesset committee on the investigations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's transplants, fearing that the public pressure expected by lawmakers constitutes an obstruction.

The committee was scheduled to discuss on Thursday Netanyahu's claims that several criminal investigations in which he is involved are the product of an allegedly vindictive cop – the former head of the Lahav anti-corruption unit 433 Roni Rittman – who believed that the Netanyahu had resigned in February on allegations of badual harbadment.

Mandelblit's decision infuriated Interior Committee Chairman Yoav Kisch, an ally of Netanyahu, who accused the police of "silencing" his committee and vowed to establish a official investigation committee in the Rittman case.

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"Those who did not want a discussion at the Committee of the Interior will get a state inquiry," he said in a statement to the press

The meeting of the Home Committee was scheduled after Netanyahu family lawyers sent a letter to the Attorney General asking him to reconsider the evidence gathered by the Rittman and alleging that the investigations were biased against the Prime Minister and his wife Sara.

The letter claimed that Rittman believed that the Netanyahu were behind the allegations of badual harbadment that forced his resignation, and that the investigations he opened on the Netanyahu – allegedly 1000, 2000 and 4000 cases – n & # Were not objective.

"This casts a heavy shadow over Rittman's investigations into the Netanyahu family, and any evidence regarding the Netanyahu couple being investigated by his unit is questionable," the letter, signed by attorneys Yossi Cohen and Yaakov Weinroth, said . "Therefore, we ask you to re-examine the investigations."

Rittman resigned in February over allegations of badual harbadment from two subordinates in 2011. He denied the allegations and suggested that it was a conspiracy to bring him down. [19659003] On Wednesday, Kisch announced that the Knesset Committee of the Interior, which oversees the police, would hold a discussion on the Prime Minister's allegation. But Mandelblit resisted writing in a letter to Knesset legal counsel, Eyal Yinon, on Wednesday night, that the committee meeting "could hinder investigations in a way that could be interpreted as an attempt". obstruction. He asked Yinon to intervene with Kisch and cancel the meeting. Kisch refused.

Thursday, Mandelblit, the nation's highest law enforcement official, informed Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein that he would not allow any of the officials invited to attend at the meeting of the committee

. the action [i.e., refusing an invitation from a Knesset committee] does not correspond to our usual way of doing things, I inform you that in these circumstances, no representative of the forces of the order will be able to attend the meeting, "wrote Mandelblit. "I concluded that we had no other choice."

In his letter, Mandelblit noted that Kisch appeared to have already made his decision as to the nature of the investigations, citing Kisch's own press statement on the committee's debate in which Kisch wrote that he had planned to discover "how an investigation against Netanyahu can work when the investigator investigator [i.e., Rittman] thinks that Netanyahu is behind a campaign of badual harbadment complaints against him." The outgoing director of the police anti-corruption unit Lahav 433, Roni Rittman, arrives at the Police Investigation Department, in Jerusalem, in December 2015. (Hadas Parush / Flash90) In the hour following the announcement of Mandelblit, Kisch declared that he had canceled Thursday 's meeting, castigating Mandelblit and other officials for "baseless or even embarrbading argument, that there was a risk of obstructing justice or d & # 39; taint the investigation "

:" One could offer countless examples of Knesset debates on issues that unfold in real time, from calls for bids to appointments pending decisions that would be made – no one has ever tried to Stop. When it is to corrupt the investigation on Netanyahu, suddenly it is forbidden, suddenly there is this fear. "

Kisch then said that he would work to establish a state-run investigation committee to review Netanyahu's allegations of police bias against him." The Cabinet and the Oversight Committee of the Knesset State, chaired by opposition MP Shelly Yachimovich (Zionist Union), have the power to establish an official investigating committee.Kisch should convince the one of these bodies to vote for such a committee in the Rittman affair.

Mandelblit also had his supporters in parliament on Thursday MK Revital Swed (Union Zionist) accused Kisch of "serving as a mercenary to a suspected prime minister of criminal acts ", and" to use its parliamentary power to obstruct an investigation.

The Haaretz daily reported on Tuesday that Rittman had asked investigators to investigate the allegations of badual misconduct against him if the allegations were related to his Netanyahu's unit's investigation. . & # 39; alleged wrongdoing. He also asked the Internal Investigation Department of the police to check whether the state prosecutor appointed by Netanyahu Shai Nitzan was involved in the case against him.

According to the report, the Department of Internal Investigations of the Police found no evidence of interference from Netanyahu or anyone else in the case against Rittman , and confirmed the allegations of badual misconduct were made legitimately.

Rittman was charged with two cases of badual harbadment in 2011, including indictment of a female subordinate against her will. Rittman denied the allegations and claimed that someone was trying to coach him. In 2015, during the investigation, he was put on compulsory leave.

No indictment has ever been filed against Rittman because of "evidentiary issues".

After a brief suspension, Israeli police commissioner Roni Alsheich reinstated him. Lahav chief 433, but in November last year, the High Court of Justice slammed his reappointment to the position in light of allegations of badual misconduct. Rittman resigned two months later

Meanwhile, Netanyahu launched scathing attacks on the officers who investigated him, including Rittman.

The Prime Minister said that Rittman's own allegations that allegations of badual misconduct were a conspiracy against him. disqualified him from conducting the investigation.