Esther Hayut answers Ohana: These are days unparalleled in our history
"There is a State Attorney’s Office inside the State Attorney’s Office," Justice Minister Amir Ohana claimed on Tuesday.
By MATAN VASSERMAN/MAARIV, JEREMY SHARONSupreme Court President Esther Hayut(photo credit: LIAV PELED)
"Politicalization of the justice system can undermine its foundations as an independent system," Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut responded in a speech on Wednesday to Justice Minister Amir Ohana's attack on the State Attorney’s Office."Such days, unparalleled in our governing history, require us all to stand firm and do our job fearlessly, with responsibility and discretion, as those who are faithful to the rule of law, keeping it, and consolidating its status. And by saying "all of us," I am referring not only to the judiciary and other law enforcement agencies, but also to the Bar Association, which I think plays an important role in this regard. "The Supreme Court Chief Justice concluded her speech by saying that "Politicalization of the justice system can undermine its foundations as an independent system, to harm the confidence the public has in the judiciary system and no less than that, it may adversely affect the status of lawyers and the bureau as the professional body that unites and represents them."In an unprecedented attack on an office in his own ministry on Tuesday, Ohana lambasted the State Attorney’s Office, accusing it of conspiring against public officials for political purposes. Ohana alleged that there was a cabal of officials in an “Inner State Attorney’s Office” that has successfully ended the careers of public officials of whom it disapproved."There is a State Attorney’s Office inside the State Attorney’s Office, which conducts a give-and-take relationship with journalists – there are those who would describe it as a relationship of bribery – and leaks to them investigative materials,” alleged Ohana during a press conference.Ohana’s fierce broadside Tuesday was aimed at the handling of the three criminal cases against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The justice minister, a close ally of the prime minister, denounced the way the State Attorney’s Office, which is under the Justice Ministry’s authority, has conducted itself during the investigations.
