Shimon Batat
Photo: Shaul Golan
Opposition leader's former campaign manager indicted
Shimon Batat, who served as MK Isaac Herzog's campaign manager the 2013 Labor primaries, is indicted as part of a plea deal for party funding offenses.
An indictment was filed Thursday against Shimon Batat, the campaign manager of opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) in the Labor primaries in 2013, and against Gilad Ramot, the owner of a private human resource company, for party funding offenses.
The indictment against Batat was filed as part of a plea bargain signed with him, according to which he will plead guilty to the charges against him. His sentence will include probation, fine and community service.
Shimon Batat (צילום: שאול גולן)
The concluded investigation was centered on the suspicion that Herzog had received illegal donations that had not been reported during the Labor party primary elections in 2013. The investigation began following suspicion that a smear campaign against Labor MK Shelly Yachimovich had been funded with improperly reported donations that might have been illegal. Herzog was later implicated in the smear campaign and was consequently investigated with the approval of the Attorney General.
In addition to Herzog, several other figures were interrogated as part of the investigation, among them Batat—a top official in the elections' campaign—and Ramot.
The investigation concluded that during the 2013 primaries, Ramot used NIS 40,000 to fund a smear campaign targeting Yachimovich, who ran against Herzog for the party leadership. Herzog also signed a deposition saying that the state comptroller had not been informed of the supposedly illegal donation. Batat, who had run Herzog's campaign, was suspected of heading the smear campaign against Yachimovich.
MK Herzog (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
According to the indictment against him, Batat also never informed the state comptroller of the funds being transferred to a private company, which is illegal under Israel's party funding laws. The funds, the indictment said, were instead registered as payment for legal counsel in order to conceal their purpose.
The case against Herzog on the matter was closed in January 2017 due to "insufficient evidence"
