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Last update - 01:25 07/07/2008 Stormy cabinet votes: No gov't inquest into Ramon case By Barak Ravid, Tomer Zarchin, and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondents Tags: Micha Lindenstrauss, Israel  The cabinet decided on Sunday not to establish a governmental inquiry committee into the conduct of the police and prosecution in the case of former justice minister Haim Ramon. Instead, it voted to ask the state comptroller to examine the whole issue of the use of wiretaps in criminal investigations, including "complaints raised on this matter in recent years." The decision was sparked by Ramon's 2006 trial for forcibly kissing a female soldier, during which the police and prosecution failed to give him transcripts of wiretaps relevant to the case, in violation of the law. The defense discovered the wiretaps' existence only by accident, part way through the trial. Two retired judges subsequently examined this development: One, Shalom Brenner, found gross negligence but no malice, but the second, Vardi Zeiler, said the material might have been deliberately withheld. Zeiler therefore advised Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann to set up a governmental inquiry committee with subpoena powers to probe the incident more thoroughly. Sunday's vote followed a stormy debate lasting more than five hours, whose highlights included vicious, mutual verbal attacks by Friedmann and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, as well as by Ramon and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter. Advertisement Mazuz, who vehemently opposed Friedmann's proposal for a governmental inquiry, had sent a letter to the cabinet last week in which, inter alia, he accused the minister of abusing his authority, undermining the separation of powers and conducting a "campaign of vengeance" against the law enforcement system on behalf of a cabinet colleague. The letter even implied that Friedmann sought to intimidate the police and prosecution in order to hinder the ongoing investigations of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Thus, at Sunday's session, Friedmann struck back. The attorney general, he said, "cannot go to the press in this fashion, against the minister in charge. One can criticize, but not like that ... [The attorney general] is part of the executive branch. He is subordinate to the minister. True, he can criticize, but not in such disparaging manner." Mazuz, in response, insisted: "I'm not trying to defend myself, only the system." State Prosecutor Moshe Lador backed Mazuz. "Mistakes happen," he said. "We deal with hundreds of thousands of cases. But an inquiry committee directed solely at the prosecution will undermine public confidence [in the prosecution]." Since Dichter, who is responsible for the police, has flatly refused to countenance an investigation of its conduct, Friedmann's proposal in fact related only to the prosecution's role in the Ramon affair. Zeiler, who also attended the cabinet debate, agreed that the primary culprits were the police, but argued passionately in favor of the inquiry committee. "A senior investigator in the police says, 'I don't need to ensure that the defense receives material that could help it,'" he said angrily. "The police possess material that no one [else] knows exists, and if it is used improperly, we must know. If you let this pass without an investigation, that's piling a sin on top of a crime." The debate was also punctuated by recurrent arguments over whether Ramon, now a deputy premier, should be present. Mazuz said that Ramon should not have been allowed to attend, while Dichter went even further, calling Ramon's presence at the meeting "a disgrace." Ramon, however, quickly counterattacked, insisting that his presence was not an obstacle to the cabinet vote. "The one with a conflict of interests is Mazuz," he charged. "The district attorney [in charge of the case] herself said the handling of my case was shocking. But the system opposes any investigation. There is nobody to whom one can complain about the prosecution. If there is no investigation, this will show the police that they can do whatever they like." Prime Minister Olmert remained silent during most of the session, but Defense Minister Ehud Barak  whose Labor Party submitted the alternative proposal that the cabinet ultimately adopted  and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni took leading roles in opposing Friedmann's motion. Livni insisted that the cabinet "should not discuss any minister's personal case, and that's the proposal before us." Toward the end of the meeting, when Friedmann realized that he had no majority for his proposal, he agreed to support Labor's suggestion instead. Shas did the same. Thus the motion ultimately passed by a vote of 16-1, which the lone vote against coming from Dichter. State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss promptly accepted the cabinet's challenge, and pledged to probe the relevant issues thoroughly. Mazuz and Lador expressed satisfaction with the decision, citing both the fact that the inquiry will be conducted by the comptroller, rather than by a panel appointed by the cabinet, and the fact that it will deal with wiretapping in general, rather than in connection with Ramon's case in particular. A senior prosecutor speaking off the record said the fact that the final decision did not even mention Ramon's case was a great achievement. However, by instructing the comptroller to probe "complaints raised on this matter in recent years," the cabinet clearly implied that Ramon's case should be addressed. A Friedmann aide said he had no doubt that the comptroller would demand testimony from all the officials involved in the case. The police also welcomed the decision to leave the probe to Lindenstrauss rather than a government panel. Friedmann said he was pleased the cabinet rejected the idea of making do with the internal inquiries conducted by the police and prosecution, but said more has to be done to ensure genuine external supervision of the law enforcement system. Lindenstrauss' predecessor investigated the use of wiretaps in 2004, and found that only 12.5 percent of police wiretaps produced anything of value, while personal conversations unrelated to an investigation were often transcribed and kept, in violation of the law. Related articles: Haaretz Editorial / Yes, investigate Labor wants comptroller to review conduct of Ramon case (2006) Cabinet orders comptroller to review use of wiretapping Bookmark to del.icio.us   Killing spree Police conclude Jerusalem bulldozer killer acted alone. The Bar exam Attention celebrities: Israeli start-up company can save you from paparazzi

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