Last update - 00:00 26/10/2006
Haim Ramon's attorneys suspect police eavesdropped on PMO
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
Former justice minister Haim Ramon's defense attorneys suspect police may have used wiretaps in the Prime Minister's Office in connection with the allegations Ramon forcibly kissed a female soldier.
The wiretapping suspicions are based on a document contained in the investigative material submitted to Ramon's attorneys.
Sources at the Justice Ministry refused to comment on the document directly but said that, "to remove all doubt, there was no wiretapping in the Prime Minister's Office of Justice Minister Haim Ramon."
The document, written by the Police Fraud Investigation Unit head Brigadier General Miri Golan, raises the possibility that the head of the Police Investigation and Intelligence Department, Major General Yohanan Danino, decided to use wiretaps without her permission, as part of the investigation against Ramon.
The alleged purpose of the wiretapping was to find out whether Shula Zaken, head of the Prime Minister's Office, pressured the complainant against Ramon not to pursue the case.
According to Golan's letter, no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Zaken was found.
The document states that on July 20th, 2006, an officer informed Golan that Danino had needed to see her urgently, and when he didn't find her, requested information gathered in by one of the wiretaps. Danino reportedly said it was in connection with the "harassment of a female soldier in the office of the military secretary to the prime minister."
At that point, according to the document, it was unknown the target of the investigation was the former Justice Minister Haim Ramon.
Zaken was questioned by police regarding the matter, but was not charged with any crime.