Last update - 00:00 19/09/2006
Ex-police chief backs successor Karadi in Zeiler probe testimony
By Yuval Yoaz
Former police chief Shlomo Aharonishki threw his support behind the current police commissioner on Monday before an inquiry committee examining alleged police and prosecutorial misconduct in the bungling of a murder probe involving the Parinyan brothers, reputed crime kingpins.
In testimony before the Zeiler Committee, Aharonishki said that he supports police chief Moshe Karadi regarding the appointment of Yoram Levy as commander of the central unit in the police's Southern District. He added that he thought both Karadi and Levy received adequate supervision in their investigation of the 1999 murder of Pinhas Buhbut.
Levy was implicated in the Parinyan brothers affair by Tzachi Ben-Or, a policeman who allegedly murdered Buhbut by order of the Parinyans. Ben-Or fled the country before he could be arrested, and was murdered in Mexico in 2004.
While Karadi was Southern District commander, he appointed Levy to head the central unit after the Police Investigations Department (PID) absolved him of suspicion that he was close to the Parinyan family, and gave them privileged information. However, Karadi did not abide by the PID's recommendation that he hold a disciplinary hearing for Levy.
In addition, a polygraph test Levy took before his appointment yielded
ambiguous results. Levy perspired during the test, and is said to have
thwarted it by exhaling heavily. It was also reported that Levy refused to undergo a second test, although subsequently he said he had not been asked to do so.
"I had no reason to doubt the opinions provided by three majors general [in the police force] regarding Yoram Levy, and I therefore approved Levy's candidacy for the position," Aharonishki told the Zeiler Committee.
He said he was not told why the polygraph test Levy took did not yield a clear result, adding: "Even if I had known at the time that Yoram perspired during the polygraph test, it would not have prevented me from appointing him. He was a good officer, talented and deserving of the appointment."
Aharonishki also said that most of his time as police chief was dedicated to fighting terror.
"That was a period replete with terror," he said. "More than half of my
attention as police commissioner was dedicated to preventing terrorism."
Aharonishki said he was updated on the Buhbut murder only a few times. He said there were many rumors about the suspicions against Levy, but said "Karadi was the only one who wanted to examine the matter in-depth."
Karadi himself is suspected of having been appointed as part of a deal with the Parinyan brothers, who allegedly served as vote contractors for the Likud - the party in power when Karadi was appointed. Omri Sharon, son of then-prime minister Ariel Sharon, allegedly had a hand in the appointment.
MK Tzachi Hanegbi on Monday denied comments by former police official Ya'akov Borovsky in which he told the Zeiler Committee that the Likud Central Committee influenced police appointments.