Prison Service appointee admits to sex with worker

Eli Gavizon says relations were consensual, plans to appeal High Court after Aharonovitch cancels decision after improper conduct claims.

By JPOST.COM, YAAKOV LAPPIN
Lt.-Gen. Eli Gavizon, whose appointment to head the Prisons Service was canceled on Sunday, admitted on Monday to having sexual relations with a worker 15 years ago.
Gavizon said the relations were consensual and said that trips taken with a different female worker to Eilat and Poland were work-related.
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Gavizon plans to appeal to the High Court against the appointment's cancellation.
"There is an attempt to create a very dangerous precedent, in which decisions are made to cancel publicy-announced appointments based on anonymous tips," Gabizon's lawyer, Boaz Ben Tzur told Army Radio.
On Sunday, The Public Security Ministry announced that it had canceled Gabizon's appointment after problems reportedly emerged during a lie detector test.
Last month, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch named Lt.-Gen. Eli Gavizon as the new head of the Prison Service, raising hopes within the organization that it would be headed by chief who has come from Prison Service ranks rather than the Israel Police.
Those hopes were dashed on Sunday when Aharonovitch canceled the appointment, after Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said he could not approve Gavizon's appointment.
According to Maariv, the Turkel Committee, which is tasked with scrutinizing senior public appointments, asked Weinstein to investigate claims of improper conduct on Gavizon's part that appeared in anonymously written letter sent to the committee.
The allegations centered on claims that Gavizon maintained intimate relations with five women from the Prison Service, one of whom was under his command at the time. The letter also alleged that he arranged questionable benefits to one of the women.
Gavizon was reportedly asked by Weinstein to take a lie detector test, which he failed, leading Weinstein to tell Aharonovitch that he could not approve the appointment.
Outgoing Jerusalem police chief, Cmdr. Aharon Franco, has been appointed instead to take over the post from outgoing head Lt.-Cmdr. Benny Kaniak.