Members of the judicial selection committee will be required to testify in the affair, including Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Supreme Court President Esther Hayut.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, Yonah Jeremy Bob
The police arrested a senior lawyer on Wednesday and
summoned two other suspects on suspicion of demanding sexual favors in
exchange for judicial appointments. Two other suspects have been
arrested, including a female judge from the center of the country.
Some
members of the judicial selection committee will be required to testify
in the affair, including Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Supreme
Court President Esther Hayut.
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R Shaked denied that she was brought in for questioning.
State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit are reportedly also aware and connected to the investigation, which police reported was opened two weeks ago.
The prominent lawyer who is being investigated is suspected to have meddled in the appointment process of judges in exchange for sexual favors as early as a few years ago.
The investigation is being led by the Central District prosecutor’s office, with supervision by the State Attorney, a police spokesperson reported.
The interrogators raided the house of the main suspect and later arrested him, while other suspects related to the affair were interrogated.
“The police today allowed partial publication of details of the affair that embarrasses the judicial system,” former president of the Supreme Court Dorit Beinisch said on Army Radio in regard to the allegations. “It seems that something very serious has happened here regarding the procedure of the appointment of judges to the courts.”
Opposition leader MK Shelly Yachimovich said in a statement that the “judicial selection committee operated under terror and corruption, under the destruction leadership of Justice Minister [Ayelet] Shaked, and the rotten environment and broken alliances that created it are the ground for the horrific affair being exposed today.”