Last update - 00:00 31/12/2006
AG rejects criminal probe into PM's remarks on Israeli nukes
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Sunday rejected National Union-National Religious Party MK Aryeh Eldad's demand to open a criminal investigation into Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over Olmert's comments regarding Israel's nuclear capabilities.
The prime minister told a German television station roughly three weeks ago that, "Iran aspires to develop nuclear weapons like the U.S., France, and Israel."
According to Eldar, the prime minister's comments violate the Israel Defense Forces' military censor's guidelines.
"Without addressing the application of the censor's instructions to the prime minister as an elected public figure, as opposed to a public employee, this is an issue centered in the public aspect of how the prime minister conducts himself, and not the criminal aspect," wrote Mazuz's chief deputy Raz Nizri in a letter to Eldar.
"Therefore, it is appropriate the comments be discussed and clarified in the public sphere, as they were, and not in the judicial sphere," Nizri continued.