Ex-head of police anti-corruption unit facing graft charges

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has decided to bring criminal charges against the former head of the police’s anti-corruption unit for fraud and breach of trust, subject to a hearing.

Maj.-Gen. Menashe Arviv resigned from the police force in February 2014 after 36 years of service, amid allegations that he had received thousands of dollars and other assistance from celebrity rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto.

The director of the Lahav 433 unit until his resignation, Arviv said on leaving the force: “I can no longer tolerate the conduct of the legal system that is rolling me and my family in feathers and tar… I have decided to end the witch hunt and therefore I have decided to leave the Israel Police.”

Pinto, the head of several charity organizations and Torah study institutions in the coastal city of Ashdod and in the US, will start a one-year jail sentence next month for bribery, attempted bribery and obstruction of justice.

It was Pinto’s lawyers who alleged to the State Attorney’s Office in January 2014 – in an attempt to secure immunity from criminal charges for Pinto – that Arviv had accepted favors illegally and provided secret information in return.

Pinto agreed to testify against Arviv as part of his plea bargain.

In July, the Pinto case claimed the life of Gen. Ephraim Bracha, who committed suicide days after an Israeli news website accused him of accepting bribes from the rabbi. Hours after his death, the Justice Ministry cleared Bracha of any wrongdoing.

Israel’s police force has been rattled by corruption cases. In September, former police superintendent Eran Malka, also of the Lahav 433 unit, was sentenced to eight years in prison for leaking sensitive information in exchange for cash.