Erdan calls on AG to investigate Alsheikh's claims
Public Security Minister Erdan calls on AG Mandelblit in Knesset speech to carry out inquiry into claims by Police Commissioner Alsheikh that investigators on PM Netanyahu's cases were tailed; previously, Deputy Minister Hotovely attacked both Yesh Atid Chairman Lapid and the police, saying it made 'cynical use of a person who wishes to replace the PM.'
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan stated Wednesday afternoon that he expected Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to examine claims made by Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh regarding police investigators involved in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cases being tailed. "I have been losing sleep over this," he said worriedly.
Erdan then went on to provide support for the embattled prime minister, against whom the police recommended indictment, and said he supported the Israel Police, an organization that he oversees. The minister did add, however, that Netanyahu was innocent until proven guilty and that only the attorney general can decide whether to indict him or not.
"The police's summations of the cases against the prime minister were delivered and its role is thus concluded. It will not be the public, journalists or politicians who decide, as when it comes to public officials, only the opinion of the attorney general matters and determines whether there is sufficient evidence to indict," he added.
"It is only up to the attorney general to decide. The prime minister, similarly to any public official or private citizen, has the presumption of innocence. Until the attorney general decides, I advise everyone to act with restraint and patience," Erdan concluded.
In an official letter he sent to the AG on the matter, Erdan called Alsheikh's claims "a significant and worrisome statement," stressing that "an attempt to intimidate police investigators who are doing their job is an act that cannot be tolerated."
Erdan noted that he received many requests from public officials and Knesset members to open an investigation into the matter, and when he confronted the police commissioner on the matter, he was simply told by Alsheikh that it is not possible for him to give any details on the matter.
"In the absence of the possibility of receiving information on such a central public issue, and since I do not have authority in the field of investigations, I am compelled to contact and urge you to exercise your authority and to open an investigation into these allegations.
"Leaving this issue 'up in the air' without the public receiving information about what actually happened could significantly harm public trust in governmental systems," he asserted, concluding that "in the absence of the possibility of receiving information on such a central public issue, and since I do not have authority in the field of investigations, I am compelled to contact and urge you to exercise your authority and to open an investigation into these allegations."
'Alsheikh should have resigned the day after the Uvda interview'
Chairman of the Knesset's Finance Committee MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) was less complimentary, and attacked Commissioner Alsheikh over his statements in the Uvda interview, which Erdan referenced.
"This is a crossing of red lines, and in a democratic country a commissioner cannot continue (after making such claims), only in a dictatorial regime. The police commissioner should have resigned the following day. Alsheikh cannot remain commissioner," Gafni maintained.
Assailing Alsheikh's specific claims that Netanyahu's investigators were themselves watched, MK Gafni said, "Why didn't you look into where those investigators came from? And if you didn't, why are you telling the public? It means you have an agenda—to hurt the prime minister's standing."
Speaking at the same Knesset plenum session, Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely attacked Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid, who was one of the witnesses in the illicit gifts affair.
"You were recruited by the police to serve as a witness," she said. "In what proper legal setting does that seem likely? You were finance minister. If you thought (the law allowing returning residents to receive tax exemptions for more than a decade) was improper, why didn't you report it in real time?"
"This reality in which the police make cynical use of a person who wishes to replace the prime minister is unspeakably improper. If you have an ounce of integrity, you would have said the same," she concluded.
Lapid's fellow party member Mickey Levy immediately fired back at Hotovely, and said, "Shame on you, you have no respect and no morality."
Hotovely replied, "You, my friends in the opposition, have an important role to play in posing an alternative to the current government. What is not your job is pressuring the attorney general to indict at any cost."
"I suggest to anyone who extols the virtues of the rule of law to respect Israeli law and refrain from passing judgment and from replacing an elected government by such illegitimate means," she added.
