Police raided former IDF top lawyer Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi’s office on Thursday after Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara transferred the investigation of the case to the military prosecution.
The events concern an ongoing probe into the leak of a video from the Sde Teiman detention facility in July that depicted alleged abuse of Palestinian detainees by reservist soldiers. Six defendants were later sentenced in connection with that matter.
A separate video showing military-police officers arriving to arrest the reservists triggered riots and a mass break-in at the facility, involving several lawmakers.
This comes after legal adviser to the Justice Ministry, Yael Kutik, concluded that the attorney-general has a conflict of interests in Tomer-Yerushalmi’s case and advised her not to oversee the investigation.
Channel 13 News reported later that Baharav-Miara transferred the investigation to the military prosecution. Initially, she had planned to argue that she was fully entitled to continue overseeing the probe.
However, Kutik’s legal opinion forced Baharav-Miara to reconsider her position in the matter. Sources now suggest that she is leaning toward stepping aside from the investigation, acknowledging the possibility that she would otherwise have to face legal challenges.
“At this stage, the attorney-general must refrain from participating in overseeing or supervising the ongoing investigation due to the potential connection between this investigation and the process of examining the leak she had been responsible for overseeing,” Kutik wrote.
Kutik emphasized that this cautious approach was not intended to question Baharav-Miara’s conduct, but rather to ensure the investigation’s independence, even if only for the sake of appearance. She also noted that it is still possible that the attorney-general could be required to testify or answer questions in relation to the case.
“At this early stage, the investigative possibilities are very broad, and it is not yet known if the police will necessarily want to summon the attorney-general or anyone on her behalf to testify, as claimed by the petitioners. However, a police investigation is inherently dynamic, and it is unclear who the involved parties will be as the investigation progresses.
“It is therefore possible that, alongside investigating the leak itself, the police will also consider whether the investigation team knew of, or turned a blind eye to the possibility that the military prosecutor was involved in the leak,” Kutik wrote.
“If this line of investigation is established, there may be a need to question those who oversaw the investigation team, and it cannot be ruled out that the attorney-general and her officials, who should have supervised the investigation, may need to be questioned.
“It is worth noting that a person required to testify in the case, even if they are not a suspect, cannot be exposed to the full body of investigation materials, and certainly cannot be responsible for managing or even participating in or overseeing the investigation.”
“Therefore, the responsible course of action at this stage is to ensure distance and avoid involvement of those who are linked to the events being investigated,” Kutik stated.
“In light of this, we have concluded that at this stage, the attorney-general must refrain from participating in overseeing and supervising the ongoing investigation, due to the possible connection of the investigation to the process of examining the leak that she was responsible for overseeing.”
Levin notifies Baharav-Miara she is barred from involvement in probe
Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced that he had assigned the case to Public Complaints Commissioner, retired judge Asher Kola.
On Saturday evening, Levin notified Baharav-Miara that he was prohibiting her from any involvement in the inquiry but the following morning, Baharav-Miara declared that Levin’s own “political involvement in the investigation was erroneous, baseless, and harmful.”
On Friday, Baharav-Miara ordered the opening of a criminal investigation into the leak. At the same time, Defense Minister Israel Katz pressed Tomer-Yerushalmi – and she resigned before he formally dismissed her – after acknowledging in a letter that she had approved the leak of the video.
“Since the first detention extension, the investigation team has taken dozens of actions. As a result of these actions, the suspicion has been strengthened. There are still several actions that could be obstructed. The suspicion of obstruction from the suspect persists throughout the investigation,” a police spokesperson told Channel 13 News.
“At all times, there has been a culture of silence among the immediate circle of the suspect.”
Sarah Ben-Nun, Avraham Bloch, and Gilad Morag contributed to this report.