Comptroller rejects Ohana request to probe Attorney-General

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman rejected a request by outgoing acting justice minister Amir Ohana to probe Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit for unspecified issues relating to the Harpaz Affair, which Mandelblit was cleared before entering office.

Having lost a battle with Mandelblit before the High Court of Justice to extend the term of temporary state attorney Dan Eldad, Ohana had hoped the comptroller would create problems for the attorney-general.

Ohana has also said he may call for a state commission of inquiry into how Mandelblit handled the Eldad matter, into the 10-year-old Harpaz Affair and into other unspecified general issues he has with the prosecution.

Channel 13 reporter Ayala Hasson has claimed that an internal justice ministry email implies a debate about how to handle a piece of evidence related to Mandelblit in the Harpaz Affair. The Justice Ministry on Monday said that Hasson or a third party had altered aspects of the email and mischaracterized other aspects.

The Harpaz Affair involved a battle between then-defense minister Ehud Barak and thenIDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi over who would be viewed as “Mr. Security” by the public and over who would succeed Ashkenazi, but eventually included Mandelblit as one of many spin off issues.

Ohana himself has come in for unprecedented attack from the legal establishment as a partisan actor on behalf of Netanyahu

with little concern with the long-term impact on the justice system.

Whereas his predecessor, Ayelet Shaked, was critical of the High Court for allegedly activist decisions regarding policy, she was always respectful of Mandelblit and the state prosecution arm.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Shaked was always clear that while she hoped Netanyahu would be acquitted, she believed that Mandelblit’s approach was completely neutral and objective.

In contrast, before Ohana had even been in office for a short time, he had already said he might ignore some court orders and accused, without evidence, the state prosecution of preparing fake indictments against him to quiet his criticism.

Ohana proceeded to publicly fight Mandelblit over who would be temporary state attorney until a new government was formed, a battle that lasted months. Mandelblit said that the state attorney is his main deputy. Due to that, he noted that the attorney-general controls the selection committee for a permanent state attorney in normal times under a permanent government and that this means even a temporary state attorney should be a candidate he supports.

Mandelblit succeeded in defeating Ohana’s first choice for acting state attorney, but relented in allowing Eldad to be appointed while he was in a battle with the political class about a range of other issues.

However, Mandelblit refused to extend Eldad past May 1 and the High Court allowed Eldad’s role to expire on May 1 over heavy objection by Ohana.

Around 20 prosecutors representing the heads of all of the country’s prosecution divisions slammed Eldad as acting politically and unprofessionally to damage Mandelblit.

Nissenkorn in the meantime has given the impression that he could care less about the battles over Eldad and does not identify with Ohana’s criticisms, but is also keeping quiet from making public comments until he actually takes office on Wednesday.