Israel Matzav

Pigs fly: Supreme Court orders uber-Leftist AG to disclose why he didn't prosecute Mavi Marmara MK

This is a flying pigs moment.

The Supreme Court has ordered uber-Leftist Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein (the same guy who refused to defend the government's position on Migron last week) to disclose to the court why he decided not to prosecute MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) and Islamic Movement leader Raed Sallah for their participation in the Mavi Marmara attempted terrorist attack in May 2010.

The decision was made following Monday’s hearing on a petition filed by MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union), activist Itamar Ben-Gvir and the Movement for Our Land of Israel.

The petition had demanded a full accounting of the state’s decision to close the case against Zoabi and Salah as a first step toward compelling the state to file the case.

The petitioners hoped that once a fuller version of the state’s reasons for closing the case was put forward that they would be able to point out defects in the decision.

Previously, the state had only released a brief press release regarding the decision to close the case with no significant detailed explanation as to why.

However, there was nothing remarkable in and of itself about the fact that the press release was short on details.

In the separation of powers scheme between the executive and judicial branches, the court mostly defers to the state prosecutor when it comes to closing cases, reasoning that as the official body which litigates criminal cases for the state, its professional judgment about how good a case it has should not be second-guessed.

Most cases which are closed do not even have a press release, let alone a public explanation in detail of the reasons the case was considered weak by the state.

The fact that the courts do not normally interfere with the state’s decisions to close cases makes the court’s decision all the more surprising.

Further, the court wrote an extremely short two page opinion, citing no legal precedents for its decision, also an unusual step.

That said, putting matters in perspective, even as the petitioners have won an initial victory in that the state must produce a more detailed explanation within 30 days, their battle is far from won.

The article goes on to discount the possibility that Ben Ari and Gvir might actually win (and that might just be media bias), but for now at least, we can celebrate.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Hanin Zoabi, Itamar Ben Gvir, leftists, Mavi Marmara, Michael Ben Ari, Raed Sallah, Supreme Court, Yehuda Weinstein

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:30 PM