Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri claimed that he would be an official minister in the government in an interview with N12's Amit Segal that was aired on Thursday.
Deri claimed that his disqualification from being a minister was wrong in part because Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara didn't warn Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against appointing him as a minister at any point and Netanyahu was very clear on his intention to make Deri a minister in his government.
He also claimed that he had never said that he wouldn't run for Knesset again while signing the plea deal in which he promised to drop out of public life. Deri claimed that if that was what he had meant, the plea deal would have been canceled the day after it was signed when he apparently announced that he would run in the next election.
How will Deri be a minister again?
Deri promised that he would once again serve as a minister but when asked how the law would be changed to allow it, he said it was not his problem.
Segal pressed him, and in response, he said that the coalition will pass a law in Knesset that would enable Deri to become a minister again, but he did not detail how the coalition would go about it or when Deri could be expected to return to the role of health and interior minister.
Last week, the High Court of Justice ruled that Deri could not serve as a minister in the government because of his crimes and the plea deal, stating this Netanyahu's appointment of him was highly unreasonable.