Last update - 00:00 20/09/2006
Police general: Conspiracy theories have been woven against me
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
General Ilan Franco, Jerusalem district police commander and former head of police intelligence, denied what he called "conspiracy theories" leveled against him by other witnesses during his testimony to the Zeiler commission Wednesday morning.
The Zeiler commission has issued warnings against almost all of the top tier of the police, including Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi, in an affair involving the appointment of Yoram Levy to the head of the central command of the Southern district.
Franco stated that one of the accusations leveled against him and Karadi, saying they worked to advance Levy, were baseless and ignored facts regarding the promotion.
According to the second "theory", Franco was blamed for promoting then-head of central command, police commander Benny Sagiv, to the position of head of information-gathering for Police Intelligence. Franco is said to have done this in order to open up the position of head of central command, to enable the advancement of Levy.
Franco described the charges against him as "Virtual, imaginary, false conspiracy theories, with no evidence to support them."
In his testimony Wednesday, Franco stated, "the statement voiced by Police Commander Amir Gur at the committee (meeting) blemishes the integrity of my professional actions, and ignores an entire set of tests and examinations I performed before deciding to promote Levy."
Franco said he was accused of being driven by ulterior motives and that the commission claims the appointment was arranged from the beginning.
"This was never the case. This testimony is a serious blow to my professional integrity, reliability and way of life," Franco said.
Franco also said that although the Zeiler commission claimed that Levy had to undergo three tests to be appointed, "there were no hurdles set up to begin with, nothing was planned ahead of time. Only the typical tests and examinations expected for a man in his position."
The Zeiler commission had written Franco a warning letter, in which it named three tests that any person seeking the position had to undergo - a polygraph test, an interview with the head of the Security and intelligence department, and a document confirming the appointee's innocence from the Police Investigation Unit.
The commission's preliminary inquiry stated that Levy got the approval of the head of Security and Intelligence department, but no one had checked or verified the details he sent.
Regarding this statement, Franco said, "The Security and Intelligence department isn't an investigative unit, it doesn't have the capability or authority to investigate. It deals with security screening of candidates for Israeli police and promotions from one position to another."
Franco also denied commander Gur's statement, whereby Franco had a deep familiarity with the police case against criminal Pinhas Buhbut. "This is entirely baseless. I did not follow the case, I did not know where it started or ended."
On Tuesday, former police chief Shlomo Aharonishki had thrown 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 Karadi regarding Levy's appointment.
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.