A Channel 12 News report on Monday evening revealed cover-ups and corruption among senior law enforcement and justice officials regarding one of the criminal investigations against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The report, which revealed that the main investigator in Case 2000 against the prime minister had a serious conflict of interest, was backed up by ample documents and testimonies and implicates the police and State Prosecutor’s Office.

According to the report by journalist Amit Segal, the main investigator in the case against Sara Netanyahu’s expenditures in the Prime Minister’s Residence in 2015, Police Superintendent Avi Rotenberg, was in a relationship at the time with Judy Nir-Mozes, the sister of Arnon Mozes, the publisher of Yediot Achronot. Nir-Mozes, who herself is a shareholder in Yediot, made several public statements against Sara Netanyahu during the course of the investigation.

Furthermore, internal police documents revealed that when Rotenberg was asked if he had a conflict of interest in heading the investigation regarding Arnon Mozes and Netanyahu in Case 2000, Rotenberg denied it and did not reveal his relationship with Nir-Mozes, leading to him being privy to the investigation material against Netanyahu which included recorded discussions between the prime minister and Mozes.

Roni Ritman, the head of the Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit, eventually became aware of the relationship between Rotenberg and Nir-Mozes but failed to report it to the Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department (PIID). Internal documents revealed that he wrote: “I agreed that Cyrus Bernor, the head of the National Fraud Investigation Unit, will speak discreetly with Superintendent Rotenberg and suggest that he be transferred – with his agreement – to a different position.”

When an outside source became aware of the incident and threatened to make it public if it wasn’t addressed, the unit reported the incident to the PIID.

What happened next is the most incriminating part of the report. The PIID reported the incident to former State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan and former Assistant State Prosecutor Momi Lemberger, who dragged their feet about addressing it, ultimately deciding that opening an investigation “wasn’t justified” since there was no proof that Rotenberg acted in Nir-Mozes’ interests.

Furthermore, in an unprecedented step, Lemberger banned the PIID from investigating the Case 2000 police against Netanyahu for “obvious reasons.” The “obvious reasons” were to prevent Netanyahu, who at the time was publicly accusing the police of bringing trumped-up charges against him, from using the information for further ammunition against the police.

The report also revealed another cover-up by State Prosecutor Nitzan – in a matter unrelated to the prime minister – regarding a Bedouin civilian who was killed by Israel Police in Umm al-Hiran in 2017. Former Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh declared the Bedouin a terrorist. A PIID investigation proved that he wasn’t a terrorist and the PIID demanded that Nitzan order Alsheikh to retract his statement.

Nitzan failed to do so although he admitted in a secret email to Alsheikh that he had acted incorrectly, but added that he will refrain from demanding that Alshikh retract his statement since it will only harm the system. Shortly later, the investigation was closed. Segal confronted Nitzan about the matter, without revealing to him that he had a copy of the email, and Nitzan outright denied the claim, claiming it was a complete lie.

In the wake of the bombshell report, Likud coalition chairman Miki Zohar said on Tuesday that he submitted a request to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to drop the charges in Case 2000 against Netanyahu. Zohar as well as other senior Likud officials also demanded that an investigation be immediately opened against those implicated of improprieties in the report, including former state prosecutor Shai Nitzan.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)