Last update - 00:00 01/02/2007
Budget cuts nix appointment of six judges for organized crime cases
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
The head of the Courts Administration, Judge Moshe Gal, has canceled a plan to appoint six judges to deal solely with cases involving organized crime - apparently in the hope that law-enforcement authorities would protest the budget cuts that led to Gal's decision, Haaretz has learned.
The plan to put six newly appointed District Court judges in charge of what has come to be called the "organized crime court" was put on ice after the Finance Ministry announced three weeks ago that ministry budgets would be cut by 3.5 percent.
"I am aware that you will not welcome this," Gal told the Israel Bar Association's central committee two weeks ago. "I also felt that way, but we can't withstand the cut any other way, such as lowering salaries."
Gal's comments indicated that he was taking a punch at the most important spot in an effort to exert pressure on the system that could lead to restored funding.
"We gave up on the six judges until an outcry is raised on this matter," said Gal. "That is the goal. We have no other choice."
"I hope that we'll get the judges back," he said, "when they understand that the war on organized crime requires reorganization, and then they'll give it to us."
However, a Courts Administration spokeswoman said Gal was not saying that the organized crime court was cut with the express purpose of provoking an outcry.
"His comments were made while looking at the matter in retrospect, and not as the expression of a position that served as a basis for making the decision," the spokeswoman said. "The decision was made because the justice system does not have enough human resources, administrative judicial support staff, in relation to the amount of judges." She added that the decision to cut the organized crime court was not an effort to force the treasury's hand.
The decision to create the court was first made public in June. Haim Ramon, who was then justice minister, said that such a court was needed due to the complexity of the cases and the large amount of defendants, witnesses and evidence.
Gal spoke in a similar vein when he told the bar association that "the organized crime cases are mega cases," and that judges spend years on each such case. In discussions on the court system's 2007 budget, the Finance Ministry agreed to allow the appointment of six judges who would deal solely with organized crime cases, starting July 2007.