Leaks prevented Messer testifying

Police recommended PM's ex-law partner also stand trial for helping Olmert receive bribes, commit fraud.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Danino 248.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Danino 248.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Police may be having a hard time convincing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's associate, Uri Messer, to turn state's witness and incriminate the premier because "elements working on behalf of Olmert" have succeeded in keeping Messer silent, a former senior National Fraud Unit investigator told The Jerusalem Post. In July, a spate of media leaks saw two full transcripts of police interrogation sessions with Olmert published in Hebrew newspapers. The leaks were aimed at neutralizing Olmert's "co-conspirators," that is, preventing them from cooperating with authorities, said Dept.-Cmdr. (ret.) Boaz Guttman. Messer, he said, as well as Olmert's former bureau chief Shula Zaken, were being shown that Olmert was not "ratting them out" in his own interrogation sessions. On Monday, unconfirmed media reports said Messer was refusing to turn state's witness, adding that police had recommended he stand trial. Police refused to confirm the reports, but a lawyer representing Messer said the police would be making a mistake by recommending that Messer be tried. Police have provided no explanation for why there have been no official recommendations to indict Messer, unlike Olmert and Zaken - leading some observers to conclude that police may be attempting to frighten Messer into becoming a state witness before burning their bridges with him and making an official recommendation to charge him. In July, both Messer and Zaken were the targets of police wiretapping, Guttman said, meaning that Olmert could not have picked up the phone to Messer to reassure him that he would not incriminate him. "Olmert can't meet the other suspects because he is surrounded by [the] Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and his every movement is reported. He cannot call the other suspects because they are being wiretapped by the Shin Bet on behalf of the police. So he is telling them, through the newspapers: 'Look at the transcripts, I haven't uttered a word to incriminate you, and you must do the same.'" Today, that tactic has paid off, Guttman said. "The leaks achieved their goal. The investigation has been disrupted," he added. "Olmert neutralized Messer as a state witness." In July, Olmert spokesman Amir Dan dismissed the idea that the leaks had originated from the prime minister's camp as "ridiculous and complex theories." He said, "It is law enforcement agencies that benefit from the leaks, which harm Olmert and his image." Meanwhile, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter defended the police on Monday against a series of criticisms over its recommendations to indict Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Throughout the day, a number of legal sources have questioned the police's conduct, such as former judge (ret.) Eliyahu Winograd, head of the Winograd Commitee that lambasted Olmert's handling of the Second Lebanon War. Winograd accused the police of straying from their duties by recommending that Olmert be indicted, adding that such activities are reserved for the prosecution. Responding to the remarks, Dichter said, "He [Winograd] is not familiar with all of the facts. He is being informed by the media. Had he been familiar with all of the facts, he would be saying different things." Addressing comments made by Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, who according to reports used a radio interview to accuse the police of bringing Olmert down, Dichter said, "I must admit that I view Friedmann's comments as amounting to tongue-lashing. This is an unacceptable act, certainly coming from a minister in office in Israel, and certainly from one of the two ministers in charge of the central law enforcement authorities. "This comment harms and weakens, at least in the public eye, the work and standing of the Israel Police, and I hope that this was not Friedmann's intention." Friedmann issued a statement denying that he had said what Dichter accused him of saying. "He did not say that the police deposed the prime minister," his communications adviser said in a statement to the press. "The justice minister meant that were the argument accepted that the police recommendation obliged the prime minister to resign, the result would be that the police had the power to depose a prime minister. "I emphasize again that the justice minister does not think the police were the ones who deposed the prime minister and any other interpretion of his words is not in accordance with what he said." A review of the statement that Friedmann made on Israel Radio's Reshet Bet interview program, Hakol Diburim, at 10 a.m. clearly demonstrates that Friedmann was correct in claiming he had been misunderstood. Friedmann told the interviewer, "I did not hear complaints when others continued in office, including cases where the police recommended indicting prime ministers. If you say the police begin an investigation, make the recommendation they make and the prime minister must then leave office, this is going much too far. We could not tolerate a situation in which the police deposed a prime minister." Israel Radio is partly responsible for Dichter's unjustified attack on Friedmann because of its presentation of the justice minister's statement later on in the news. In its news bulletin, it reported that "Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann says we cannot tolerate a situation in which the police depose a prime minister." In response to Dichter's attack on Friedmann, aides of the justice minister said "it is a shame Dichter chose to frontally attack the justice minister regarding words he did not say and that he did so without first clarifying the facts." Dan Izenberg contributed to this story.