Last update - 00:00 03/12/2006
Zeiler panel hears secret testimony on police handling of Parinyan cases
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
The Zeiler Committee has been hearing secret, in camera testimony on the police and prosecution's flawed handling of cases involving the Parinyan brothers, an alleged crime family, over the past few weeks.
Police officers who may be incriminated by the testimony were not present for the hearings.
Last Wednesday, Commander Yoram Levy and Superintendent Ruby Gilboa complained to the committee that those suspected of possible misconduct have not been given an opportunity to cross-examine witnesses.
The committee has warned both men that its findings could reflect poorly on them.
If the panel accedes to the pair's request to cross-examine the witnesses, this would presumably prolong the committee's hearings, which were supposed to end next week.
In their complaint, Levy and Gilboa's attorneys said the in camera testimony, whose content was relayed to the two officers only after the fact, was conducted in order "to contradict facts related by Gilboa and cast aspersions on his credibility."
Some of the witnesses, they noted, had testified before the committee twice before, in open hearings.
"Hearing testimony without the presence of those who have been warned [that the committee's findings could injure them] constitutes a perversion of justice, a gross violation of the rules of natural justice and a serious blow to our right to a fair proceeding," wrote attorneys Boaz Ben-Tzur and Haggai Halevy.
The attorneys also complainted that a month ago, the committee members visited the police's Lachish District to collect testimony from officers "on matters that relate directly to Levy and Gilboa."