Attorney General Menachem (Meni) Mazuz has decided to indict Minister Tzachi Hanegbi in the political appointments scandal at the Ministry of the Environment when he held that portfolio, and lying under oath and providing false evidence to the chairman of the central elections committee.
Hanegbi is ninth in the Kadima Party’s list for the Knesset, after he defected from the Likud with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. When Ehud Olmert was appointed acting prime minister, Hanegbi was appointed head of the party’s election headquarters. Legally, the indictment has no effect on his position in the party’s Knesset list.
Subject to a hearing that Hanegbi will be granted, the indictment will include serious criminal charges of fraud and breach of trust, election bribery, providing false evidence, and lying under oath. The indictment will apparently not include charges of abuse of official power, even though the Israel Police found evidential basis in this matter.
Mazuz ordered the police investigation, which lasted for a year, following a State Comptroller report, published in August 2004, on political appointments at the Ministry of the Environment. The State Comptroller wrote, among other things, “His (Hanegbi) actions were a gross violation of the law and the rules of proper administration. They politicized the civil service and used public resources to promote personal political interests.”
When he was questioned, Hanegbi said the appointments at the Ministry of the Environment were not political appointments, but were based “solely on the professional skills of the people appointed”. He added, “If the State Comptroller wants to set new norms, she should apply them henceforth, and not retroactively.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on February 2, 2006