Last update - 00:00 22/02/2007
Police Commander Levy to sue probe chief Zeiler for slander
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
Police Commander Yoram Levy is planning to sue for slander retired Justice Vardi Zeiler, who headed the panel of inquiry into alleged police misconduct during the probe of a 1999 murder.
Levy's decision follows comments made by Zeiler in an interview with the Haaretz magazine on Thursday. The commander had hinted at these plans earlier this week, after Zeiler delivered a press conference addressing the findings of his inquiry.
Attorney Boaz Ben-Tzur, Levy's representative, wrote Zeiler a letter on Thursday in which he said, "rather than clarifying these harsh defamatory words that you said during the press conference and apologize for the damage caused to Levy, you chose to repeat this slander in an interview, adding to the mudslinging."
According to Ben-Tzur, Zeiler presented Levy during the interview as a "representative of the mafia."
"You know well that Levy never served as a 'representative' of the Parinyan family or of any other person in the police. And if that isn't enough, during the interview you decided in an incomprehensible way to make public the content of the draft report that wasn't published, which you used in a world of unfounded imagery in order to defame Levy."
The attorney added that, "likening Levy to a 'harmful computer virus which destroys the system from within' and as a 'spy working in the service of the enemy' is an unacceptable act like no other. These words present a scathing violation of every legal and appropriate norm."