Last update - 00:00 10/02/2008
New witness protection law could even include plastic surgery
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
The government on Sunday approved a bill for the formation of a witness protection authority.
The bill was proposed in a bid to deal with a weak point in the fight against organized crime in Israel.
Currently, the Israel Police is able to offer protection for witnesses before and during a trial. In special cases, the police can subsidize flight tickets abroad for its witnesses. The absence of a program and means to protect witnesses post trial has led potential witnesses to decide against taking the stand for fear of retribution.
The bill that the Ministerial Committee on Legislation is expected to approve proposes to allow district judges to put witnesses in a program offering them a new identity. Judges would even be allowed to approve state-funded plastic surgery for witnesses who wish to change their appearance for fear of being identified.
But, according to the outline for the new authority, it would not be at liberty to completely change the identity of witnesses. The authority, if it is approved, would not be permitted to list Jews as Muslims or visa versa. Marital status will not be changed either, and witnesses are not supposed to be listed as having any fictitious education, skill or license.
Recipients will be eligible for formal papers such as an identity card and passport under their new identity. The authority will also have the mandate to relocate witnesses to other countries.
The initial budget for the new body, which will operate under the Public Security Ministry, is meant to be NIS 100 million - five times higher than the initial estimate given by the team of police officers who formulated the basis for the new body.
The formation of the new authority began in 2002, when Moshe Lador assembled an interministerial committee on the subject before he was appointed to his current post of state prosecutor. In a September 2004 report by the committee, Lador's team recommended the new body operate under the Justice Ministry instead of the Public Security Ministry for fear of information leaks within the police, if it were entrusted with both protecting witnesses and questioning defendants against whom the witnesses were to testify. Then justice minister Tzipi Livni agreed, however, to allow then public security minister Gideon Ezra to incorporate the department into his ministry. The committee selected former Shin Bet official Aryeh Livneh from a list of 27 candidates to head the new body.
In 2004, the government spent some NIS 500,000 on protecting approximately 100 witnesses, including 10 criminals who turned state witness.
"The new arrangements under the new authority will serve to conceal the witness from the parties who might threaten him or her," the outline for the new authority proposes. "The authority will also put in place the appropriate mechanism for making the change of identity gradual and controlled, and it will also allow the system to make an educated decision to expose the witness' real identity." A witness's identity may be revealed at his or her request or at the discretion of the authority's director.
Protection will also have an expiration date after which the authority can either recommend an extension or dropping the witness from the program.
The bill for the authority includes several amendments to other laws, in order to provide comprehensive protection. For example, the Courts Law will let judges declare in camera sessions out of consideration for witness safety and the need to keep his or her identity secret.
The law on privacy will be altered to allow the authority to evaluate the risk to people under its protection program by keeping them under surveillance. Keeping the authority's files confidential also required legal adjustments to the system, because the new body had to be declared an exception to the law on freedom of information.
In addition, the program devotes special attention to extending protection to the family members of those in the witness protection program. The definition of family members will be fairly broad to include former relatives or family members who are not blood relatives.