Report: Ashkenazi cronies to be indicted for role in Harpaz Affair

Police will recommend that three former high-ranking IDF officers be indicted for releasing classified documents from the army and for breach of trust.

By BEN HARTMAN
Gabi Ashkenazi (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Gabi Ashkenazi
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Police are on the verge of recommending indictments against former IDF spokesman Brig.-Gen. (res) Avi Benayahu, Col. (res.) Erez Winner and Lt.-Col. (res.) Boaz Harpaz in the Harpaz Affair, reports across the Israeli media said on Wednesday.
The investigation into the Harpaz document is ongoing, police said.
According to the reports, police will recommend the three officers be indicted for releasing classified army documents and for breach of trust.
It was unclear if former IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi is likely to be indicted. Police questioned him, as well as his wife, Ronit, on a number of occasions in recent months.
On Tuesday, police questioned former prime minister Ehud Barak about the affair the headquarters of the LAHAV 433 anti-corruption unit in Lod.
In June, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s cabinet secretary Avichai Mandelblit was questioned under caution for his alleged involvement in the affair.
Mandelblit was the military advocate-general when the Harpaz Affair came to light in 2010.
The Harpaz Affair is an alleged plot in 2010 by Harpaz and others to undermine then-defense minister Barak’s choice to succeed Ashkenazi as IDF chief of staff, former OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yoav Galant, by spreading misinformation about him. Ashkenazi and Barak’s confidants are suspected of spying on one another as a result of their feud – which led to the affair.
In March, Benayahu and Winner, a former assistant to Ashkenazi, were arrested and, a day later, ordered released to five days’ house arrest for their alleged role in the Harpaz Affair.
Police said then they were being held on suspicion of destroying documents, obstruction of justice, and holding and disseminating classified documents without approval.
Harpaz was also arrested and released in March.