Former state prosecutor accuses Netanyahu of blood libel
Nitzan said it was unbelievable to accuse Mandelblit, Alsheikh and Lemberger of being leftists trying to bring down the Right, because they are religiously observant.
By GIL HOFFMANFormer state attorney Shai Nitzan(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Former state prosecutor Shai Nitzan on Thursday rejected charges from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the legal establishment has united to topple him.Nitzan made his remarks in interviews with three television networks.Netanyahu has repeatedly made such allegations, singling out Nitzan, former police chief Roni Alsheikh, Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit and deputy state prosecutors Shlomo Lemberger and Liat Ben-Ari.It was unbelievable to accuse Mandelblit, Alsheikh and Lemberger of being leftists trying to bring down the Right, because they are religiously observant, Nitzan said.“He says our investigations of him were not real, and there is a conspiracy to topple him,” he told KAN TV. “These allegations are so ridiculous. They are a blood libel.”Nitzan denied that he was part of any cover-up of wrongdoing by police investigators in Netanyahu’s cases. An email of Nitzan in which he wrote about not probing an alleged conflict of interest in the police due to “people who want to harm the law-enforcement system” was not referring to Netanyahu.The report said former police investigator Avi Rutenberg, who was in a romantic relationship with Yediot Aharonot co-owner Judy Nir-Mozes, was involved in Netanyahu’s Case 2000, the Yediot Aharonot-Israel Hayom Affair.Rutenberg was not significantly involved in that case, and he should not have been allowed to question Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, in her cases due to a conflict of interest, Nitzan said. But he rejected Netanyahu’s request for an independent probe of what happened with Rutenberg.In response, the Likud said Nitzan had corrupted the law-enforcement system and that he was panicking, because if he was probed, he would be found guilty.
