The legal handling of the submarine affair, which surfaced with a bang last week, makes the cliché unavoidable: it will sink without trace. Yesterday, Ministry of Justice sources told "Globes" that the decision not to initiate a criminal investigation or examination of the issue is final, to be reviewed only if new information on this affair becomes available. "Globes" inquired whether Attorney General Dr. Dr. Avichai Mandelblit does not intend to examine whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indeed did not know about the contact between his confidant and personal lawyer David Shimron and German company ThyssenKrupp and had not discussed this with him. The answer was that no one had claimed that Netanyahu was aware of Shimron's involvement (only, at most, that he was unlikely not to know about it) and therefore, no such examination was necessary. A similar decision was made in relation to Adv. Shimron.
In a discussion on the reports about the 'submarine affair' conducted on Sunday by the attorney general, with the participation of State Prosecutor Adv. Shai Nitzan and other senior Ministry of Justice officials, it was decided not to initiate an examination or a criminal investigation of this issue. The discussion followed the publication of information collected by Channel 10 news reporter Raviv Drucker, which indicated that Adv. Shimron had been involved in Israel's purchase of submarines from Germany, as well as complaints on this issue made by various parties.
The official Ministry of Justice statement said, "Following the discussion, we have decided to continue examining this issue and also in this context to review different aspects of the arrangement on dealing with conflicts of interest of individuals involved in this affair. This is being examined from both the factual and legal aspects and only once this examination is complete we will decide on how to handle the matter." Nevertheless, it later became clear that Mandelblit and Nitzan had decided that no suspicions of criminal conduct arose from the actions attributed to the prime minister or his attorney. In the light of this, the police will not become involved and will not examine Shimron or Netanyhau's involvement.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 22, 2016
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016