Last update - 00:00 17/09/2006
Police chief grilled again over suspected cop-gangland ties
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi began testifying Sunday for the second time before the Zeiler Committee, which is investigating the bungled handling by the police and prosecution of a murder-for-hire case involving suspected crime bosses the Parinyan brothers, and police officer Tzahi Ben-Or.
Karadi first testified before the committee in May. In four hours of open-court testimony and an additional hour in camera at the time, Karadi tried to defend his decision, as then-head of the police's Southern District, to appoint Commander Yoram Levy to head the district's Central Unit. Levy has been accused by colleagues of hampering the investigation and of improper ties to suspected crime bosses the Parinyan brothers.
On Sunday, Karadi testified that former Commander Meir Gilboa sent a letter to the committee in which he described a conversation between himself and former police Northern Regional Commander Yaakov Borovsky (who had been passed over for the chief position when it was awarded to Karadi).
"Borovsky told me" Gilboa wrote, "about the progression of the events leading up to Yoram Levy's appointment to head the Southern District Central Unit. He told me about the Parinyan brothers' connections with senior Likud members, among them Omri Sharon and Tzachi Hanegbi. He told me that Levy provided the two politicians with protection, and in return, they influenced Karadi to give Levy the appointment."
Karadi replied to this "there is not any man that can say they influenced me to appoint Levy to head the Central Unit. If there is such a man, let him come before the committee and state his claim. These are evil and imagined things that were said, according to Gilboa, by a Major General that lost a promotion to me. I am aware of the vicious rumors about me, but after having studied the warning letter I've received, I fear there is no escaping these rumors that are present in the underlying text of the letter as well as in some of its clauses. I can't shake the impression that there are statements in the letter that are based on rumors against me rather than fact. I want to state very clearly, in big letters, the vicious rumors are comprised of lies and do not contain an inkling of truth. Every decision that I've made in regards to Yoram Levy's appointment was based on professional considerations, and there is not any truth to the allegations against me."
In his testimony, Karadi also specifically addressed every clause in the warning issued against him. He said that some of the allegations against him are simply mistaken, for they took place during times in which he was not Commander of the Southern District. Karadi emphasized the fact that it had been him who ordered the disciplinary action that was taken against Levy, and that he acted in spite of advice to the contrary.
Israel Radio Sunday quoted Karadi as having told the committee that there were unnamed elements seeking to sully the good names of the police and of Karadi himself. According to the report, Karadi hinted that Borovsky was behind some of the allegations against him and other officers.
The Sunday testimony opened the final phase in the investigative panel's deliberations, in which Karadi and 12 others, all warned that they may face indictment, are to bring witnesses to testify on their own behalf. The phase was to have begun two weeks ago, but was postponed as a result of procedural problems caused by the Lebanon war.
In the May hearings, Karadi came under fire from committee members, who made it clear that the precautions he took before appointing Levy had been ineffective. Karadi had relied on the Internal Affairs department's announcement that it would not investigate Levy due to insufficient evidence, as well as a polygraph test of Levy that yielded no findings.
During his testimony, Karadi tried to deflect responsibility for various actions taken in the years he headed the Southern District. Regarding the negotiations with Oded Parinyan in 1998 over the return of batteries for gas masks with attached compressors that had been stolen from a Home Front Command warehouse in Gan Yavneh, he said that responsibility lay not with him, as Lachish regional commander, but rather with his subordinates, Ruby Gilboa and Yoram Levy. He also said that as Southern District commander, the Buhbut murder case and policeman-turned-hit man Tzahi Ben-Or were not his top priority, citing the variety of activities that a district commander has to handle.
Regarding Levy's appointment, Karadi presented a file containing Levy's recommendations and various documents attesting that Levy had been up for a series of promotions before becoming head of the Central Unit. After Levy took up the post, when Ben-Or's file was discovered strewn about a Central Unit office, Karadi ordered Levy to give him the file, and later transferred it to central headquarters. But Karadi was unable to give the committee a satisfactory explanation of why he ordered Levy not to examine the contents of the file. He kept saying that "the unusual circumstances" in which the file was found justified his intervention and insistence on taking possession of the file.