Last update - 00:00 15/04/2007
Police refrain from deciding on MK Marciano bar brawl indictment
By Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondent
The police reported that it was unable to decide whether to indict MK Yoram Marciano (Labor) over allegedly attacking and threatening security guards at a Herzliya night club last month.
The police could not reach a conclusion due to contradictory evidence in the affair. The police handed over the handling of the case to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz without any recommendations, leaving him to make the decision whether an indictment is in order.
Tel Aviv District Police officials were shocked to learn of the decision made at the police national headquarters. According to police sources, the decision does not correspond with the evidence in the case. Though the investigators did not include a specific recommendation in their final report, the sources said, the report did include the investigators' opinion that the evidence against Marciano was solid.
In fact, in the midst of the probe, the investigators said that "there would be no other choice" but to indict. The evidence in the case included testimonies of two security guards at the Rio night club, saying that Marciano had attacked them physically and verbally. A photographer also testified that Marciano's friend had physically attacked him, and that the MK himself had threatened him.
Finally, the investigators also viewed the security video from the night of the incident which documented the brawl that erupted between Marciano and the guards as the MK was trying to leave the club. The investigators found that the recorded evidence completely supports the security guards' versions of events. After the video was shown to Marciano, the investigators unanimously agreed that there is enough evidence against him to warrant an indictment. Thus they were surprised to learn that no recommendation to that effect had been made.