The court hears a request to open an investigation by the Prime Minister into the submarine and stock case, despite the decision of the ombudsman • Activists of the Movement for Quality of Government demonstrate outside the courtroom
Supreme Court
Photography:
Noam Rivkin Fenton
The High Court is currently hearing a petition by the Movement for Quality of Government against the State Attorney's Office, in which the movement claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is involved in corruption in the submarine and stock affair.
In a hearing held before Justices Yitzhak Amit, Neil Handel and Noam Soldberg, the movement demands that a criminal investigation be opened against Netanyahu and even a state commission of inquiry be set up.
This is despite the opinion of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, that there is no need to open a criminal investigation into the stock affair and that the prime minister is not involved in the submarine affair.
As part of the petition, more than 50 affidavits were submitted to the High Court by the Movement for the Quality of Government by former heads of the defense establishment, including the prime minister, chiefs of staff, heads of the Mossad and the Shin Bet, and other senior officials, all calling for "deepening the investigation."
"No reasonable suspicion has arisen that justifies a criminal investigation"
In response to the petition, the state claims that the ombudsman's decision not to interrogate the prime minister in the submarine affair stems from the fact that there was no reasonable suspicion that justifies a criminal investigation by the prime minister during the investigation, and that the court has already discussed the matter.
In the stock case, the state noted that "this case sharpens the gap between a possible criminal thesis, which any person can raise, and an initial evidentiary basis on which prosecution authorities can rely and on its basis determine that a reasonable suspicion of an offense has been formed,"
The chairman of the Movement for the Quality of Government, Advocate Dr. Eliad Shraga, said before the hearing:
We have high hopes for the Israeli Supreme Court, which will order the opening of a criminal investigation into the share affair and its effect on the vessel purchase case, as well as the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the matter. "