Efi Nave, judge to be indicted in sex for judgeship scandal
Nave is suspected of having sexual relationships with Eti Karif and with a female lawyer whose husband is a magistrate’s court judge and was seeking promotion to become a district judge.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBEfi Nave in court(photo credit: REUVEN CASTRO)
The state prosecution announced on Tuesday that it will likely indict former Israel Bar Association president Efi Nave and Netanyahu court judge Eti Karif as part of a sex for judgment bribery scandal.Nave once controlled the deciding votes on the Judicial Selection Committee, and Karif now stands accused – subject to a pre-indictment hearing – of engaging in an intimate relationship with him in exchange for his support to get her a judgeship.In the same prosecution statement, a second judgeship scandal was closed.Nave was suspected of engaging in an intimate relationship with a female lawyer married to a male magistrate’s judge, in order to gain Nave’s support for the male judge’s promotion to the higher district court level.Similarly, a probe into Nave’s having a problematic intimate relationship with a legal-intern was closed as improper, but not criminal.Finally, the prosecution rejected a complaint by Nave against Army Radio reporter Hadas Shteif for penetrating or using data from his private cellphone in order to break open the case.Ultimately, the prosecution found that Shteif acted under sufficient guidance from law enforcement regarding her use of the information.Nave resigned as Bar Association president in January in the wake of the “sex for judgeship” affair.At the time, Lahav 433 – The National Crime Unit questioned Nave and two other suspects, one of whom was Karif, for involvement in a scheme of promoting judicial candidates in exchange for sexual favors.In addition, then-justice minister Ayelet Shaked, interviewed on Channel 12 in January about the Nave saga, defended herself against calls for her resignation due to her political alliance with Nave in the selection of judges.
Shaked lashed out at her critics, claiming that in a prior scandal involving a Bar Association official who had formed an alliance with judges on the Judicial Selection Committee, no one called for the judges to resign because of their association with the Bar official.She said that she should not be attacked either, and was only being attacked because left-wing officials are upset over her success at appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court.Shaked said that overall she trusts the police to find the truth at the heart of the case, and that even if Nave committed criminal acts, his actions should not put in a negative light the hundreds of proper judicial appointments made by her, six Supreme Court justices, and other officials.Shaked, Supreme Court President Esther Hayut and a number of other prominent members of the Judicial Selection Committee were expected to give testimony to police as fact witnesses at some point.
