'Former head of bar association can help select justices'

Yori Geiron will take part in national council vote after Tel Aviv District Court rejects petition that sought to prevent his participation.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
Israeli Supreme Court 311 (photo credit: REUTERS/FILE)
Israeli Supreme Court 311
(photo credit: REUTERS/FILE)
Former Bar Association head Yori Geiron will take part in Tuesday’s national council vote to elect two representatives to the judicial selection committee, after the Tel Aviv District Court rejected a petition on Monday that sought to prevent his participation.
Three Bar Association members – attorneys Amos Van- Emden, Yeron Festinger and David Or-Chen – argued that Geiron should be barred from the elections because he is being investigated by police on suspicion of fraud and bribery.
Police questioned Geiron over allegations that he received hundreds of thousands of shekels from the “Meuhedet” health clinic for fictitious advertising services, and announced this month that there is an evidentiary basis for prosecuting him.
However, Judge Kobi Vardi ruled that the ongoing investigation should not bar Geiron from taking part in the elections, and said it could be months or years before the evidence is examined and a decision is made over whether to indict him.
“I do not believe that public trust will be harmed by rejecting this petition,” Vardi said, adding that throwing out the petition would actually increase public confidence by removing concerns that those behind it had filed for political reasons.
Geiron dismissed the petition as “political wrangling,” and said the timing of the petition “speaks for itself.”
To run for a place on the judicial selection committee, Bar Association candidates need to obtain the signatures of three members of the association’s council. Geiron, who is known as a close associate of Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, has signed nominations for two candidates, Rachel Ben-Ari and Khaled Husseini Zouabi.
Also on Tuesday, Bar Association President Doron Barzilay called on the Bar’s National Council Chairman, attorney Tzvi Piron, to postpone Tuesday’s voting to allow the Knesset to complete the legislative process to change the way the Bar chooses its two judicial selection committee representatives.