The decision was made by a majority of opinions supported by Justices Noam Solberg and George Kara, against the dissenting opinion of Vice President Hanan Meltzer.
Netanyahu’s adviser at the entrance to the DIP: “This is a political investigation to isolate the Prime Minister” (Archive) // Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon
As mentioned, Prime Minister’s advisers Yonatan Orich and Ofer Golan were summoned for questioning by the police, during which they were asked to hand over the telephones in their possession to the investigators, without being explained that they could refuse the request, and this refusal would not be their duty. Police investigators hacked into their cell phones and subsequently applied for court approval for a phone intrusion order. Their request was granted, intrusion orders for the telephones were issued, based on “confidential material” brought to the court’s attention.
An appeal filed by the petitioners to the district court was dismissed. An application for leave to appeal filed with this court was partially granted and there it was held that illegal actions taken would be taken into account at the hearing, and may result in its adjournment and return the hearing to the Magistrates Court. Following the return, it was decided that the intrusion orders issued were revoked except for the order proposed to Prime Minister Ofer Golan’s spokesman. The state appealed to the district that returned the intrusion orders to all the mobile devices. The latest decision made is regarding the appeal of the Prime Minister’s advisers on the same district decision and as stated an appeal that was rejected.
Judge Solberg did rule that the police acted in violation of the law but there was no causal link showing an impact on the investigative actions taken afterwards that allowed disqualification. It was therefore ruled that there is no place, at this stage of the criminal proceedings, to examine the intensity of the violation of the rights of the suspects.
Judge Kara agreed with Solberg and added that he objected to the application of the rule of disqualification and the doctrine of protection from justice at this preliminary stage of the legal process, believing that this would severely impair, and even fatally impair, the ability to conduct the investigation and the public interest in truth-seeking.
The Vice President, Justice Hanan Meltzer, requested in a minority opinion to accept the appeals and order the rejection of the request for intrusion into the mobile devices. In view of the fact that not all parties involved in the illegal search of the appellants’ mobile devices appeared for the hearing, and that in the second incarnation of the proceedings, the police chose to file an amended request to search the mobile devices, without including the materials obtained for the illegal search. Accept the appeal. These and other figures show, for the Vice President’s approach, that the police did not meet the burden of presenting a sufficient evidentiary basis for issuing the requested intrusion orders.