Justice Minister Yariv Levin on Tuesday tapped State Ombudsman for Judges Asher Kula to go the investigation into former army advocate common Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi over the Sde Teiman leak affair, in an effort to bypass Legal professional Normal Gali Baharav-Miara.
Kula would lead the investigation instead of Baharav-Miara, who Levin has claimed is legally barred from involvement within the case because of her position and that of her workplace in drafting submissions to the Excessive Courtroom of Justice on behalf of the Army Advocate Normal’s Workplace that he stated turned out to be inaccurate and even deceptive.
Baharav-Miara has already insisted that Levin’s claims are baseless, and that the minister doesn’t have the authority to bypass her. The conflict between the 2 is prone to find yourself within the Excessive Courtroom.
Kula, a retired decide, issued a separate assertion saying that his acceptance of the place didn’t replicate any place he might need over Levin’s efforts to sideline the legal professional common.
Tomer-Yerushalmi is suspected of fraud and breach of belief, abuse of her workplace, obstruction of justice, and illegal disclosure of fabric over her position within the Sde Teiman leak. She has admitted to authorizing the leak of surveillance digicam footage in mid-2024 that purported to indicate alleged abuse of a Palestinian prisoner on the Sde Teiman detention facility.
Levin has claimed {that a} clause within the 1959 Regulation for the Civil Service (Appointments) permits a minister to empower an exterior public servant to take up a process of an official underneath that minister’s authority, if that official is legally prevented from finishing up that process, and in session with the civil service commissioner.
Writing to interim Civil Service Commissioner Daniel Hershkowitz on Tuesday, Levin knowledgeable him that he intends to nominate Kula to go the investigation as a substitute of the legal professional common, and famous that Kula had agreed to just accept the position.
Kula was lately handpicked by the coalition to function the ombudsman for judges after the federal government handed laws giving itself management over the appointment course of.
“I imagine that the ombudsman for judges, each as an establishment and personally, is the absolute best resolution to what’s required on this case,” wrote Levin. “His appointment will get pleasure from broad public belief, which is important within the circumstances during which we discover ourselves.”
Kula stated in his personal press assertion that his settlement to just accept the position didn’t replicate any place he might need on the broader problem.
“The ombudsman doesn’t categorical any place concerning the obstacles [to the involvement of] the legal professional common [in the Sde Teiman leak investigation], nor concerning the authority of the minister,” a press release put out by the Justice Ministry’s spokesperson learn.
Regardless of Levin’s assertion that he has the authority to sideline Baharav-Miara, some critics have identified that this might contravene Clause 34 of Primary Regulation: The Authorities, which states that “a minister who’s in command of implementing a legislation is entitled to imagine any energy, aside from powers of a judicial nature.”
In response to Excessive Courtroom petitions demanding a felony investigation filed in August this 12 months, the Legal professional Normal’s Workplace helped draft a response, primarily based on data associated by the Army Advocate Normal’s Workplace, that an inner investigation had decided there was no chance of discovering the leaker and that there was little level in additional investigative steps.
That response was filed regardless of Tomer-Yerushalmi having personally accredited the leak. Levin has argued that Baharav-Miara’s position in drafting the submission to the Excessive Courtroom contravened her involvement within the broader investigation, in addition to that of each official in her workplace.
Likud MK Avichai Boaron has filed a petition to the Excessive Courtroom asking it to order the legal professional common to not contain herself, though the courtroom has but to ask the events for his or her response.
The liberal Israel Democracy Guard watchdog group filed a letter to Levin and Hershkowitz demanding that the hassle to sideline Baharav-Miara stop, a probable precursor to submitting a petition to the Excessive Courtroom with the identical request.
Earlier on Tuesday, it was reported that the army prosecutor assigned to the Sde Teiman abuse case has been suspended over suspicions that he transferred surveillance digicam footage to the Army Advocate Normal’s Workplace that was then leaked to the media.
Military Radio reported that the prosecutor, a lieutenant colonel, has been positioned on pressured depart till additional discover. The IDF has not formally commented on the report.
The report stated that the prosecutor was questioned underneath warning by the police over suspicions he was concerned within the leak. Because the prosecutor within the case, he had entry to all of the investigation supplies, and he’s suspected of offering them to officers within the MAG’s workplace for the leak to Channel 12 information in August 2024.
Military Radio reported that police have proof displaying that Tomer-Yerushalmi instructed her workers to ask the prosecutor for supplies in an effort to go them on to the media.
Nevertheless, it stays unclear if the prosecutor knew that the fabric he handed over to the MAG’s workplace was meant to be leaked to the media, the report stated.
Police divers had been trying to find Tomer-Yerushalmi’s cellphone at Hatzuk Seashore in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning. It has been lacking because the former MAG disappeared on Sunday for a number of hours.
צוללנים של המשטרה ממשיכים לחפש את הטלפון הנייד של הפצ”רית. חפ”ק המרכז את החיפושים הוקם בחוף הצוק@YoavBorowitz pic.twitter.com/MOJWgaTrOa
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) November 4, 2025
On the time Tomer-Yerushalmi was feared to have harmed herself because of the ongoing investigation, however police now reportedly suspect her of deliberately tossing her cellphone into the ocean in an effort to destroy incriminating proof.
