Last update - 00:00 16/02/2007
Justice Min. Friedmann holds secret meeting with Haim Ramon
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
Channel 2 aired pictures Friday confirming that Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann and former justice minister Haim Ramon met secretly Thursday, showing Freidmann leaving an office building after meeting with Ramon.
Friedmann's office maintains the meeting was one of a series of routine meetings that the new justice minister has been holding with his predecessors.
On Wednesday, Friedmann met with his predecessor, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and on Friday he is scheduled to meet with former justice minister Yosef (Tommy) Lapid.
Friedmann is also expected to meet with former justice ministers Yossi Beilin and Meir Sheetrit.
Attorneys and legal officials in the court system called the meeting "especially scandalous" because "it nearly coincided with the Committee of the Appointment of Judges hearing and was held on the eve of Ramon's sentencing."
The chairman of the Knesset State Control Committee, MK Zevulun Orlev (National Union-National Religious Party), also criticized the meeting, saying it was inappropriate and aroused amazement since the new minister publicly slammed Ramon's conviction.
MK Danny Yatom (Labor) said in response that the meeting "arouses suspicion that ... Friedmann is trying to influence Ramon's trial before it has ended. If Friedmann chose to conceal the meeting, it is a sign that it was not justified."
The court is expected to sentence Ramon in roughly a week, after he was convicted of indecent behavior for kissing a female soldier against her will.