The misconduct of some police officers during the probe of a 1999 murder does not represent the Israel Police, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said Tuesday.

"I can't say these grave events that occurred during the Parinyan affair was an isolated incident, but from my familiarity with the police I can say that it is not an event that represents the police," Mazuz told the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee.

The committee on Tuesday met to discuss the report of the Zeiler Committee, which was charged with investigatin the handling of the probe into the murder by a policeman of suspected crime boss Pinhas Buhbut, while he was under guard in hospital.

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The report found deficiencies in the performance of several senior police officers, including Police Chief Moshe Karadi, who announced his resignation hours after the findings of the report became public.

Mazuz met Tuesday with the committee to announce his decision to open an investigation of the "battery affair." According to suspicions, senior police commander Ruby Gilboa accepted hundreds of thousands of shekels from an insurance investigator to transfer to murder suspect Oded Parinyan, in exchange for the return of thousands of military-issue batteries stolen from the Israel Defense Forces.

The attorney general said that an investigation of the battery affair had been opened in the past and then paralyzed. Mazuz said that the current investigation would take a different shape than that of the past.

Aide: Ganot standing ground, will become police chief
Prisons Service spokeswoman Orit Stelzer Tuesday denied a report that Yaakov Ganot was reconsidering his nomination as head of the Israel Police.

Earlier on Tuesday, the radio quoted associates of Ganot as saying that the broad criticism of Ganot's nomination as police commissioner had convinced him to turn down the offer.

"Commissioner Ganot has not changed his decision to be named police commissioner, as chosen by [Public Security] Minister Avi Dichter," Stelzer said in a statement quoted by the radio.

In the latest twist in the effort to stabilize the shaken upper echelons of the police and Israel Prisons Service [IPS], the deputy police commissioner, Major General Benny Kaniak, announced Tuesday that he would accept the position of IPS commissioner, two days after Public Security Minister Avi Dichter declared his intention to replace Kaniak as deputy Israel Police chief.

There had been speculation that Kaniak would refuse Dichter's nomination to head the IPS. Dichter passed over Kaniak when he named the current IPS commissioner, Ganot, to replace Moshe Karadi as Israel's next chief of police. Dichter then effectively dismissed Kaniak from his present post as deputy chief, announcing that Major General Mickey Levy would assume the position.

The report that Ganot was rethinking the appointment came a day after retired Supreme Court justice Yitzhak Zamir blasted the nomination. Zamir, who had been on the panel of judges that ruled on Ganot's appeal 13 years ago against a conviction of charges such as fraud and bribery, spoke out against his appointment for police commissioner on Israel Radio on Monday.

Dichter said Monday that he intended to submit Ganot's appointment to the Tirkel Committee, the body that authorizes appointments to the public service, for approval within a few days. "In the event of a police commissioner's resignation, a new one should be appointed as soon as possible," he said.

However, the chairman of the committee, retired judge Yaakov Tirkel, said Tuesday that even if the High Court allows the Ganot appointment to proceed, there is no guarantee that the Tirkel panel will approve it.

"In any event, before the issue comes before the cabinet for ratification, my panel will need to discuss it," Tirkel told the radio. "If the High Court approves it, there is still the chance that my panel will think otherwise, and disqualify the nomination."

Responding to the radio report on Ganot's intentions, Prisons Service spokeswoman Orit Stelzer said Tuesday that Ganot had not changed his mind over accepting the nomination.

Dichter said Monday that the objections to Ganot's appointment due to his trial and the criticism accompanying his acquittal were to be expected. He said there was no reason not to appoint Ganot, despite the criticism.

"A stain, as complicated as it may be, cannot become an obstacle to the commissioner's appointment," he said. "It has been 13 years since the incident. Some stains stay for life, but I would be very careful before saying the matter at hand is such a case," he said.

Dichter said that Zamir, as a justice who ruled in Ganot's case, "should consider what effect his statement could have and how it could influence those who must decide on the matter."

"It has been 13 years since Zamir ruled on the issue and he spoke without knowing what happened afterward. Ganot has done a few things in his life since then, he has served in senior posts. I hope people will weigh his stumble against the many things he has accomplished," he said.


Dichter said Monday that he chose Ganot to succeed Karadi as police commissioner after all but one or two candidates to whom he had offered the job rejected it out of hand. He added that he was determined to submit the Ganot appointment to the cabinet for ratification as soon as possible.

Dichter told Haaretz he had told Ganot of his intention to appoint him two months ago. Dichter said he would have fired Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi had he not resigned Sunday.

If Ganot's appointment fails to meet the legal criteria, Dichter said he would not appoint Major General Micky Levy instead, because Levy did not fulfill the requirements the minister had set for the commissioner's post.

"I interviewed candidates from the most senior security milieu, the creme de la creme, but apart from one or two nobody could do it. Amram Mitzna was one of the candidates I approached, but I realized it wouldn't work out. Other candidates recoiled from the post," Dichter said.

"I think I examined every single relevant candidate. Ganot was the best, the most suitable and had the highest chances of succeeding in the job. It wasn't easy for me to see serious senior figures recoil from the job," he said.

Dichter said he had not considered candidates from among police major generals. "The district comanders weren't relevant as far as I was concerned. They do not meet the criteria I set for the post," Dichter said. Shortly after entering office I said that candidates for commissioner will have to be deputy commissioner first. I will position the next deputy commissioners so that they answer the criteria of contending for commissioner. By the time a new commissioner is appointed there will be two candidates in the deputy's post who will be able to run for the top position."