Last update - 00:00 01/08/2007
IDF asks court to protect rights of soldiers facing war probe
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent
The office of the Military Advocate General on Wednesday petitioned the High Court of Justice seeking to instruct the Winograd war probe commission to protect the rights of the officers and soldiers liable to be harmed by the panel's findings.
The Winograd Commission, charged with investigating the failures of the political and military echelons during the Second Lebanon War, plans to release a final report on its findings without issuing warning letters to those criticized in it.
The petition was filed following an extended correspondence between the Military Advocate General's chief defense attorney, Colonel Orna David, and chairman of the commission, retired judge Eliyahu Winograd. The petition aims to provide those affected by the report an opportunity to review the evidence against them and respond to it prior to the release of the final report.
In the petition, the attorneys demand that the High Court to issue a conditional order calling on the commission to justify its decision not to notify soldiers and officers in advance of the report findings that could affect them. The petitioners are also demanding that the court order the commission to provide the soldiers and officers with the material to be included in the report and allow them to cross examine witnesses, call up their own witnesses and present the commission with their arguments.
The commission is bound to honor all these rights, the petitioners said, if their findings will harm the subjects of the report.
The military attorneys wrote that the petition to the High Court comes as a last resort, after all efforts to convince the commission to act in accordance with the law had failed. They added that it is not their intention to delay the publication of the report with this petition, but they cannot allow this grave violation of the soldiers' basic rights. "The commission has refused to point to specific officers who could potentially be harmed," they wrote and added that the letter sent to summon the witnesses was very general, and it could not be gleaned from it who could be harmed by the testimonies.
The attorneys outline in the petition the nature of the correspondence between them and Winograd since the war probe panel released an interim report on its findings on April 30.
In July, the retired judge wrote "in the interim report we made our views on the core principles of natural justice very clear...It goes without saying that we will exercise these principles in dealing with anyone who might be harmed by the conclusions of the final report, allowing them to argue their case before the final draft is formulated. Appropriate notices will be issued once the commission has made the decisions which will allow us to determine who may be harmed."
On Tuesday, former defense minister Amir Peretz asked the Winograd Commission to let him peruse the material it has gathered so far, and should the need arise, allow him to summon his own witnesses to testify on his behalf.