The State Attorney’s Office today (Tuesday) submitted a notice to the Jerusalem District Court detailing the consent of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to open the investigations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The notice, which includes a request for clarification as well as a document on behalf of the ombudsman, was subsequently submitted to the court for a decision on the matter.
In the ombudsman’s document, signed by him and attached to the notice, Mandelblit announces that he is the one who personally gave his consent to the Prime Minister’s interrogations, and that he approved, agreed and accompanied the examination and inquiry proceedings in his case. The ombudsman also details the dates on which he made decisions regarding the opening of investigations and subsequent investigations into Netanyahu’s case, decisions that he made in an orderly and professional work process that was done with the enforcement authorities, and which was documented in real time.
Mandelblit adds that not only did he give initial consent to open the investigations or investigations in the three investigation files, each at a time, as required by law, but he also gave approval at various stages to many dozens of other investigative actions in cases, even though the law requires only. The certificates are detailed in the document according to their dates and according to documentation written in “real time” in internal records of the Office of the Attorney General.
It is further clarified in the memorandum that according to the Basic Law of the Government, there is no obligation to give “written consent” of the ombudsman to open an investigation of a prime minister and the law does not even require that consent be given in a certain format. When the legislature wants to set a more rigid “consent” requirement such as “written consent” – it does so explicitly.
It is also emphasized that this requirement of consent determines a “process” and not a “substantive” characteristic and it seeks to serve a public interest in having a decision on senior officials be made by the head of the law enforcement system himself.
The Likud responded: “Until now, the State Attorney’s Office claimed that the ombudsman’s approval was not part of the investigation material and therefore should not be forwarded to defense attorneys, and now it claims that no written approval was needed. “In violation of the Basic Law of the Government – and therefore the investigations against the Prime Minister are illegal.”
“The prosecution’s response is a blatant violation of the court’s decision and despises it. All this is enough to immediately announce the closure of the tailor-made cases against a powerful right-wing prime minister, which began with sin, continued blackmail, conflict of interest and cover-up of investigations.”