Shai Nitzan: I hope police wrap up PM corruption probes within weeks

The state attorney hinted that there may be more former allies of top officials turning into state witnesses

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Updated: JANUARY 15, 2018 00:28
SHAI NITZAN. (photo credit: MAARIV)
SHAI NITZAN.
(photo credit: MAARIV)
State Attorney Shai Nitzan on Thursday said he hoped the police investigation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for corruption would be wrapped up within weeks.
However, “if someone thinks probing the prime minister is simple – they are dreaming,” he said in remarks at a Globes conference in Jerusalem.
Nitzan struck back at media outlets that have accused law enforcement of dragging its feet from ending the probe to Netanyahu’s benefit.
“If we need to collect more evidence, we’ll collect it. If we decide we are done, then we’ll go forward quickly… and I hope that we will be done within a few weeks,” he said.
The state attorney also seemed to hint that in the Netanyahu probes or in other investigations of top officials that there may be more former allies of those officials turning state’s witness.
“Anyone who is intending to commit a crime should know they cannot count on their co-conspirators or aides, secretaries… drivers, or confidants…. In the moment of truth… their self-interest and saving one’s skin always overrides your self-interest and your skin,” he said.
Nitzan also slammed the “public’s quiet” or lack of interest in the conviction and sentencing of former Yisrael Beytenu minister Stas Meseznikov to jail time for corruption. He implied that the matter has been mostly ignored and should have been viewed in the media and by the public “as an earthquake” and a clear warning about public corruption.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked also spoke at the conference, defending her campaigning for conservative appointments to the Supreme Court as she released a list of 25 candidates last week to fill two open spots in February.
She defended top evidentiary law expert Alex Stein who was revealed as one of her favored candidates, and then took some shots from the media, but also appeared to back off from insisting on him specifically.
In a November interview, Shaked told The Jerusalem Post that she expected to succeed in getting conservative justices appointed in this round of appointments just as she did in the last round of February 2017.
Earlier, at the same conference, Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit spoke about a range of laws impacting the business community. He discussed striking the right balance of regulation as well as new corporate bankruptcy laws which will better protect creditors from risk when multinational corporations with subsidiaries in Israel become insolvent.


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