Court rules against Nave in border fraud case

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday against former Israel Bar Association president Efi Nave on a major legal issue hovering over the trial against him for violating customs border security at Ben-Gurion Airport.

The new legal blow to Nave comes only days after the state prosecution announced that it will likely indict him for bribery in a sex-for-judgeship scandal.

In the Ben-Gurion Airport case, Nave allegedly snuck a woman past the customs officials to avoid any record that they crossed through customs together, which might negatively impact his ongoing divorce proceedings.

Due to Nave’s nearly complete power over the bar association and alliances with key politicians, he had managed to stay in office despite that indictment for committing fraud against Ben-Gurion Airport customs officials.

Nave was considered close to former justice minister Ayelet Shaked and key to her conservative-leaning judicial revolution.

His trial in the Ben-Gurion Airport case has been running for months, but he has sought to blow a hole in the prosecution’s case by claiming that many people perpetrate the crime he is being prosecuted for, and that the enforcement against him is so arbitrary that it is illegal.

To move his legal fight forward, Nave demanded that the prosecution reveal all evidence related to similar cases so that he can try to sideline the trial against him in a spin-off trial over arbitrary enforcement.

While the Supreme Court said that Nave can still submit specific requests for specific items of evidence to try to make his arbitrary enforcement argument, it rejected his demand for comprehensive disclosure by the state prosecution.

The Supreme Court also placed the burden of evidence on Nave to prove to the trial court judge that any specific item he asks for will concretely help his case.

Effectively, the ruling is likely to end Nave’s ability to sidetrack the trial, and the charges against him will now likely move forward.

While the airport case was the first against him, the sex-forjudgeship scandal case, which came later, was what finally forced him out of office in January.

Though that story broke some time ago, the case made a large jump forward last week when the state prosecution announced that it will likely indict Nave and Netanya court judge Eti Karif as part of the sex for judgeship bribery scandal.