Supreme Court rules against Efi Naveh in border fraud case

The new legal blow to Naveh comes just days after the state prosecution announced that it will likely indict him for bribery in a sex-for-judgeship scandal.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Efi Nave in court (photo credit: REUVEN CASTRO)
Efi Nave in court
(photo credit: REUVEN CASTRO)
The Supreme Court ruled on Monday against former Israel Bar Association president Efi Naveh on a major legal issue hovering over the trial against him for violating customs border security at Ben-Gurion Airport.
The new legal blow to Naveh comes only days after the state prosecution announced that it will likely indict him for bribery in a sex-for-judgeship scandal.
In the Ben-Gurion Airport case, Naveh allegedly snuck a woman past the customs officials to avoid any record that they crossed through customs together, which might negatively impact his ongoing divorce proceedings.
Due to Naveh’s nearly complete power over the bar association and alliances with key politicians, he had managed to stay in office despite that indictment for committing fraud against Ben-Gurion Airport customs officials.
Naveh was considered close to former justice minister Ayelet Shaked and key to her conservative-leaning judicial revolution.
His trial in the Ben-Gurion Airport case has been running for months, but he has sought to blow a hole in the prosecution’s case by claiming that many people perpetrate the crime he is being prosecuted for, and that the enforcement against him is so arbitrary that it is illegal.
To move his legal fight forward, Naveh demanded that the prosecution reveal all evidence related to similar cases so that he can try to sideline the trial against him in a spin-off trial over arbitrary enforcement.
While the Supreme Court said that Naveh can still submit specific requests for specific items of evidence to try to make his arbitrary enforcement argument, it rejected his demand for comprehensive disclosure by the state prosecution.
The Supreme Court also placed the burden of evidence on Naveh to prove to the trial court judge that any specific item he asks for will concretely help his case.
Effectively, the ruling is likely to end Naveh’s ability to sidetrack the trial, and the charges against him will now likely move forward.
While the airport case was the first against him, the sex-for-judgeship scandal case, which came later, was what finally forced him out of office in January.
Though that story broke some time ago, the case made a large jump forward last week when the state prosecution announced that it will likely indict Naveh and Netanya court judge Eti Karif as part of the sex for judgeship bribery scandal.
Naveh once controlled the deciding votes on the Judicial Selection Committee, and Karif now stands accused – subject to a pre-indictment hearing – of engaging in an intimate relationship with him in exchange for his support to get her a judgeship.
In the same prosecution statement, a second judgeship scandal was closed.
Naveh was suspected of engaging in an intimate relationship with a female lawyer married to a male magistrate’s judge, in order to gain Naveh’s support for the judge’s promotion to the higher district-court level.
Similarly, a probe into Naveh’s having a problematic intimate relationship with a legal intern was closed, with the decision that the relationship was improper, but not criminal.
Finally, the prosecution rejected a complaint by Naveh against Army Radio reporter Hadas Shteif for penetrating or using data from his private cellphone in order to break open the case.
Ultimately, the prosecution found that Shteif acted under sufficient guidance from law enforcement regarding her use of the information.


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