Last update - 00:00 22/05/2007
Ramon paid in full while absent from Knesset for harassment trial
By Zvi Zrahiya, Haaretz Correspondent
MK Haim Ramon (Kadima) received his full monthly salary during a nine-month absence from the Knesset due to an indictment for indecent behavior. The former justice minister returned to the Knesset Monday.
Ramon was convicted of indecent behavior for forcibly kissing a female soldier.
The total amount of Ramon's salary for the period of his absence comes to NIS 178,000.
During the Knesset's winter session, which took place from 15 October, 2006 to 25 March, 2007, the plenum had 112 sittings. According to the law, an MK who is absent from Knesset sessions without reasonable justification for a period of several months - not including parliamentary recess - is liable to be brought before the Knesset Ethics Committee.
The committee will soon send a letter to Ramon requesting he explain his absence. It is authorized to demand Ramon return the salary he received for those months away from parliament. However, it can also take into consideration the circumstances of his absence, as it has done in past with reference to other MKs.
A state employee who is suspended from office due to an indictment is meant to receive in the first half year of suspension only half of his monthly salary. This amount does not include overtime and expenses such as petrol.
The last few months have shown that there are two schools of thought regarding what an indicted MK should do. The Tzachi Hanegbi-Shlomo Benizri school of thought holds that the best thing to do is continue coming to the Knesset despite the indictment. But Ramon believed that absence was the best solution.
An MK who has been indicted, said Ramon, "is not effective. You're not really an MK, especially because I wanted a speedy trial."
In the meantime, there have also been proposals not yet passed to require MKs under indictment to be suspended. In such a case, said MK Dor Rotem (National Union), both the Knesset member and his salary should be suspended. According to this approach, the MK would get the back pay if acquitted, and nothing if convicted. Rotem's justification for suspension echoes Ramon: MKs cannot function when under indictment.