Last update - 00:00 08/11/2006
Former head of National Fraud Investigation breaks down in Ramon trial
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent
The former head of the National Fraud Investigation Unit, Brigadier General Miri Golan, broke down during testimony Wednesday in the trial of former Justice Minister Haim Ramon in Tel Aviv Magistrate Court.
When asked whether she had said she would not let Ramon appoint a Supreme Court president, she responded, "I can only say that the great Miri Golan you present was unable to rise to the occasion. Her wings were clipped - apparently she interfered with certain people," then began to cry.
Later, Golan testified that it was a mistake not to include the transcript police allegedly obtained by eavesdropping with the evidence submitted to defense attorneys.
She also disputed allegations that she had threatened the complainant, known as H., and told her Ramon could file an indictment against her for slander if she refused to testify.
Golan said the issue was raised in conversation, but that it was a side issue, not a primary one.
Earlier, witness Sima Galil, a secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, testified that she told Ramon she could not testify against him, and suggested they travel to Costa Rica together.
Galil said that H.'s behavior after the incident, in which Ramon is alleged to have forcibly kissed her, did not appear to be out of the ordinary.
She said she took one of the photographs of Ramon and H. after the alleged incident, and the complainant did not have tears in her eyes.
Galil also commented on H.'s relationship to Major General Yohanan Danino, now head of the police Investigation and Intelligence Department, who functioned as chief of staff in the office of internal security, and was familiar to H.
According to Galil, the relations between the two were good, and that there was no "distance" between them.
In his testimony, Danino said the impetus for the decision to open an investigation on suspicion of disrupting the legal process came from a letter written by H. to her army commander.
In the letter, H. wrote, "I will take this story to my grave. I will close the story with Shula [Zaken, a supervisor at the Prime Minister's Office]."
Danino said the police had concluded that Zaken was involved in the disruption of the process of choosing witnesses. He was interrogated by attorney Dan Sheinman on alleged wiretapping, and why information on it was not included in the investigation materials.
Danino said the matter has to be investigated further, and rejected allegations that police waged an organized campaign against Ramon.
"We had one goal - to find the truth," he said.
A Shin Bet security official present at the alleged incident also testified Wednesday behind closed doors.
Galil's testimony was heard after that of Zaken, who said H. refused to testify to police against Ramon because, according to her, she felt uncomfortable as the victim of an indecent act.