The High Court of Justice today ruled that Prof. Eytan Sheshinski will stay on as chairman of the committee to review oil and gas royalties. The court dismissed a petition by the Association for Another Way to remove Sheshinski on the grounds of a conflict of interests.
Judges Asher Grunis, Salim Joubran, and Neal Hendel also charged the petitioner with a heavy court cost of NIS 35,000 in favor of the government and NIS 15,000 in favor of Sheshinski personally. The decision to dismiss the petition and levy the court costs, was made instead of erasing the petition, even thought the Association accepted the judges' recommendation and withdrew the petition last Friday.
The judges said that the Association for Another Way had notified the court that "the matter should be decided by the court… out of a desire to honor the recommendation of the court, which was asked not to discuss the petition, the petitioner announced that it will withdraw the petition." They added, "This announcement by the petitioner is tantamount to pure wising up."
The Association for Another Way filed the petition in August. It claimed that Sheshinksi "was mired in personal interests from head to toe in all matters pertaining to the gas industry in the State of Israel, in view of his membership in the investment committee of Psagot Investment House Ltd., which has direct interests in Ampal-American Israel Corporation (Nasdaq: AMPL; TASE:AMPL), which owns a substantial proportion of an Egyptian gas field."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 13, 2010
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