The newly appointed justice minister, Daniel Friedmann, has decided to appoint retired judge Boaz Okon as director general of the Justice Ministry.

The two will meet this weekend or early next week to discuss their plans for the ministry.

Okon resigned his previous post as director of the Courts Administration about six months ago, after only two years on the job, because it became clear that the new Supreme Court president, Dorit Beinisch, did not want him there. He had been appointed by Beinisch's predecessor, Aharon Barak.

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As head of the Courts Administration, Okon was considered a talented manager, and he did much to advance the court system's ambitious computerization project. When he resigned the post, Beinisch said she hoped he would resume his previous job as a district court judge, but Okon decided to quit the judiciary entirely.

His poor relationship with Beinisch stemmed mainly from the fact that she torpedoed a proposed Supreme Court appointment for Prof. Nili Cohen. Okon was very close to Cohen, having once worked as her research assistant.

Friedmann, who is also close to Cohen, has a bad relationship with Beinisch for the same reason. He and Beinisch will hold their first working meeting on Tuesday.

On Friday, Friedmann met for over an hour with Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to get an overview of the ministry's work and the main items on its current agenda. He also met with State Prosecutor Eran Shendar. However, no specific criminal cases were discussed at either meeting.

Also Friday, Mazuz rejected a demand by the Ometz nonprofit association that he open a criminal probe against Friedmann on suspicion of obstructing justice and trying to influence the judges in the trial of his predecessor as justice minister, Haim Ramon. Ometz based its request on an article that Friedmann wrote in last Friday's Yedioth Ahronoth, in which he lambasted the judges' verdict in Ramon's case. Since Ramon has not yet been sentenced, the trial is technically still underway. However, Mazuz's office responded that the prosecution's policy is to uphold freedom of speech and avoid criminal proceedings over such remarks wherever possible.

In addition, several citizens filed a police complaint against former Supreme Court deputy president Mishael Cheshin over his attack on Friedmann in an interview with Israel Radio on Wednesday. In the interview, Cheshin warned Friedmann: "Don't raise a hand against the Supreme Court. It's my house, and if anyone raises a hand against my house, I'll cut his hand off." The complainants claimed that this constituted an illegal threat.

Friedmann himself, however, published a statement on Friday in which he said that he did not view Cheshin's remark as a threat, and urged that people "refrain from filing a complaint on this matter" in particular, and from "transferring too many issues that do not warrant it to the criminal realm" in general.

Friedmann also received two requests Friday that he cancel the secrecy that currently surrounds meetings of the Judicial Appointments Committee. One was sent by a former journalist, Ben Zion Citrin, and one by the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel. The committee's next meeting is due to be held later this month.