Attorney General keeps everyone guessing on Netanyahu allegations
WHEN IT comes to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, there is little consensus.
The man who now holds Benjamin Netanyahu’s fate in his hands is so full of contradictions that just about any decision he makes in the months to come — regarding the police recommendations to indict the Prime Minister on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases — will not surprise.
There are those who are convinced that the former Major General is a patsy of Mr Netanyahu’s because he served as his cabinet secretary for two years, and the agonisingly slow and ponderous process by which he is examining the police findings is proof that he ultimately intends to dilute them.
Mr Mandelblit’s defenders are of the opposite opinion. They cite sources close to the
Prime Minmilitary Avichai Mandelblit ister who say that he actually had preferred a different candidate for attorney general and say the fact that Mr Mandelblit directed the police to question Mr Netanyahu as a suspect so many times is proof enough. They ascribe the lengthy process to Mr Mandelblit’s meticulousness. “There’s no point hurrying him,” says one senior Justice Ministry official. “He will reach his conclusions only once he’s gone painstakingly through every piece of evidence.” For most of his career, Mr Mandelblit was a military attorney, rising to the post of Chief Military Advocate General. Even there, opinions on him were sharply divided between those who saw him as covering up wrongdoing by the army, and others who believed he was much too accommodating to the claims of human rights groups. On Sunday, police produced a final set of recommendations to indict the Prime Minister. These were based on allegations that Mr Netanyahu, together with his wife Sara and six other suspects, were involved in an ongoing agreement to favour the telecoms giant Bezeq in exchange for favourable news coverage .
This concludes the investigation stage, leaving Mr Mandelblit to combine the case with other allegations and produce a single, initial charge sheet.
But even that will not be the end of his involvement, because the suspects will then be allowed hearings, lasting months, before a final indictment is delivered.
His decision last month to appoint a “devil’s advocate” team of attorneys, in addition to the team in the State Prosecutor’s office already examining the police files, has further divided opinion.
Mr Mandelblit’s detractors see it as more evidence that he is looking for ways to let the Prime Minister off the hook. His admirers see it as proof of his fair-mindedness and insistence on examining the case from every possible angle.
Either way, he will keep everyone guessing until he is ready.