Surprise Delay in the Abu-hatzeira Proceedings

Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir dropped a bombshell in the Knesset’s House Committee today, delaying for at least two weeks its decision over whether to remove the immunity of Religious Affairs Minister Aharon Abu-Hatzeira who has been indicted on three counts of bribe-taking.

The committee, which was expected to act today, was thrown into confusion by a letter from Zamir charging that the police “used trickery” in building its case against the minister. The Attorney General, who had been pressing hard for a waiver of immunity in order to bring Abu-Hatzeira to trial and seemed at the point of getting it, said he did not know beforehand of the alleged “trickery” and did not explain its exact nature.

In his letter, read by committee chairman Moshe Meiron, Zamir said the police resorted to a trick to persuade former B’nei Brak Mayor Yisrael Gottlieb, to turn state’s evidence against Abu-Hatzeira. Gottlieb is the prosecution’s chief witness. He was reportedly convinced to testify by a police emissary who was a personal friend and used Gottlieb’s trust in him to overcome his reluctance to testify. A recording of the police emissary’s conversation with Gottlieb will be turned over to the committee at the end of this week or sometime next week.

Zamir admitted that it was only after a new round of discussions with the police that he found out that he had not been kept fully informed of the investigation that led to the indictment and that a secret recording of the police conversations with Gottlieb existed. Zamir’s letter reached the committee while it was in the midst of a discussion of what clause in the law should be used to lift Abu-Hatzeira’s immunity as a Knesset member.