Israel Matzav

Liberman acquitted

The corruption trial of Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman has ended in an acquittal, possibly paving the way for him to return to the foreign ministry.

A great deal was at stake for Liberman and the Israeli political establishment in the outcome of the legal saga.

Had he been convicted with a finding of moral turpitude, his resignation as foreign minister would have been made permanent, he would have been forced to resign from the Knesset, and he would have been banned from political life for seven years.

The prosecution’s main allegations were as follows: First, in October 2008, Ambassador to Belarus Ze’ev Ben-Aryeh gave Liberman a note with information about a state investigation into money-laundering allegations against him, discussing the case with him for three to five minutes.'

Next, the prosecution said, Liberman destroyed the note, failed to report Ben-Aryeh and then helped him procure promotions in the Foreign Ministry.

After that, Ben-Aryeh joined Liberman’s bureau in April 2009.

The prosecution said that Liberman both failed to report Ben-Aryeh to the Foreign Ministry’s appointments committee and actively campaigned in fall 2009 for Ben-Aryeh to be appointed as Latvian ambassador.

According to the prosecution, the campaign included Liberman giving instructions to then-deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon saying that Ben-Aryeh was his preferred candidate (all of this based on what Ayalon told police).

In a 115 page opinion, Judges Hagit Mack-Kalmanovitz, Yitzhak Shimoni and Eitan Kornhauser ruled Wednesday that Ben-Aryeh had been solely responsible for initiating and surprising Liberman during the incident, who had no part in initiating the exchange between them.

The court also held that Liberman did not know, regardless of whether he and Ben-Aryeh spoke about the note for a few minutes, that the source of the note was an Israeli Justice Ministry investigation against him.

...

The court did find that Liberman "acted inappropriately" but added that "the gravity of the conflict of interest" did not merit a conviction.

The judges strongly rejected the testimony of Ayalon, stating that it was contradicted by other top Foreign Ministry officials.

They also wrote that Ayalon had not sufficiently explained how he swiftly went from defending Liberman's innocence in an interview with Channel 1 while still working for Liberman, to suddenly proclaiming his guilt shortly after Liberman booted him out of Yisrael Beytenu.

Two things not mentioned here. First, the possibility of this verdict leading to the breakup of Likud Beiteinu. Liberman may not need Netanyahu politically, is opposed to the 'peace process' and is unlikely to want to be in a coalition with Tzipi Livni. He's certainly not going to go along with the idea of Livni being in charge of 'negotiations' with the 'Palestinians' while he is foreign minister in title only.

And second, this may be the end of Danny Ayalon's career. Would you want to join a political party with a high functionary who "swiftly went from defending Liberman's innocence in an interview with Channel 1 while still working for Liberman, to suddenly proclaiming his guilt shortly after Liberman booted him out of Yisrael Beytenu"?

Oh yes, one other thing. Why is it that we have once again been treated to the spectacle of a lengthy and expensive trial of a politician of the Right ending in an acquittal? The real corruption here is the Left's dominance of the state's attorney's office.

Labels: Avigdor Lieberman, Binyamin Netanyahu, Danny Ayalon, government corruption, Likud party, Tzipi Livni, Yisrael Beiteinu

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:21 PM