Last update - 00:00 09/03/2008
High Court rejects petitions to overturn Ramon cabinet appointment
By Tomer Zarhin, Haaretz Correspondent
The High Court of Justice rejected on Sunday three petitions to overturn Haim Ramon's appointment as minister.
The petitioners urged the High Court to review its previous ruling in Ramon's case, which endorsed his accession to cabinet despite his conviction of indecent sexual act.
In his ruling, Deputy Chief Justice Eliezer Rivlin said that the case does not merit an additional hearing.
In a paragraph that could be interpreted as an understated criticism of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Rivlin wrote that "the public's confidence in the state authorities is a vital tenet of a democratic regime, a tenet which is not unlimited and certainly not to be taken for granted? A cumulative erosion of the public's confidence, resulting from decisions that stretch the limits of public propriety, might in due course metamorphose into a chronic systemic failure. The role of the judiciary is to constantly alert the public of such failures."
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