The decision confirms the same position which Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit expressed in May in a letter to Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan.
The High Court of Justice on Thursday ruled that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must stay out of the process for appointing a new police chief to avoid a conflict of interest in light of the criminal probes currently pending against him.
The decision confirms the same position which Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit expressed in May in a letter to Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, but unlike Mandelblit’s guidance, is final from a legal point of view.
In his May letter, Mandelblit had made two main points.
On one hand, he said that to date he had rejected requests to block Netanyahu and other ministers under investigation from involvement in the appointment process, noting that these requests were premature when no process had started.
On the other hand, he said that once Erdan got to the point of starting the process in the future, he should first consult with Mandelblit so that the attorney-general could, “evaluate the conflict of interest issues connected to members of the government who are currently under police investigation, and to give directives accordingly,”
Current Police chief Roni Alsheich is not expected to have his three-year term extended after a recent rocky relationship with Netanyahu and Erdan.
Usually, Erdan would recommend a replacement candidate to the cabinet, which typically approves the recommendation. However, with such senior level appointments, especially with the cabinet voting, the prime minister is usually highly involved and influential in determining who the public security minister recommends.
Mandelblit appeared to heavily hint to Erdan that since Netanyahu is under investigation in Cases 1000, the Illegal Gifts Affair, 2000, the Yediot Ahronot-Yisrael Hayom Affair, and 4000, the Bezeq-Walla! Affair, his involvement in selecting the top police official who could impact those cases would be a conflict of interest
As reported by The Jerusalem Post