Former MK claims he was wrongfully questioned amid fight against ‘cartel’ of lawyers

Police reject Abir Kara’s claim he was denied attorney, say he was probed on suspicion of breaching restraining order

By ToI Staff 12 September 2024, 4:25 pm Edit
Former Yamina MK Abir Kara at the launch of his new Economic Freedom party in Jerusalem, September 4, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Former Yamina MK Abir Kara at the launch of his new Economic Freedom party in Jerusalem, September 4, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Former MK Abir Kara said Wednesday that he had been wrongfully interrogated and denied access to a lawyer, claiming police were siding with a “cartel” of attorneys he had been campaigning against due to their exploitation of business owners.

Police rejected Kara’s claims, saying the ex-lawmaker and activist for small business owners was questioned on allegations of violating a restraining order issued after his behavior toward a resident of Rosh Ha’ayin was deemed threatening and harassing.

In a long post on X, Kara said he has been fighting a “cartel” of attorneys who he alleged abuse the law enforcement system to make money off innocent business owners.

As a result, he said, he began receiving threats against his family — and that instead of protecting him, police arrested him for violating a restraining order by speaking out against one of the lawyers in a previous social media post.

Kara claimed that during his interrogation, he was prevented from speaking with a lawyer and that the investigation appeared to consist of “police actively assisting a cartel whose purpose is to trample on innocent citizens.”

The lawyers “file bogus lawsuits against innocent business owners, lawsuits that crush them financially and mentally, with the goal of lining their pockets. This is a money-laundering operation wrapped in a suit,” he said.

According to Kara, among the victims of what he called the “lawyers’ cartel” were reservists, “who realized while defending us in Gaza that they had fallen victim to extortion under the protection of the law.”

He went on to say that this group of lawyers “operates as a predatory machine, systematically violating ethics and the law.”

Kara also claimed that the post in question had already been discussed by the court and determined not to be in violation of the restraining order, yet he was still brought in for interrogation.

Police said that contrary to Kara’s remarks online, the former MK was given an opportunity to consult a lawyer, but refused. The statement added that it fully rejects Kara’s remarks as well as his shameful conduct towards police officers.

Kara served a term in the Knesset but failed to reenter the parliament after the November 2022 elections, when the Economic Freedom party he formed after breaking from Yamina received only a fraction of the votes necessary to clear the minimum electoral threshold.

In July 2023, prosecutors announced they intended to indict Kara for voting twice on a Knesset bill relating to unemployment benefits in July 2021. Double-voting is a criminal offense in Israel.

Kara, a deputy minister in the Prime Minster’s Office at the time, maintained the double vote was an innocent mistake and said he accidentally voted from the computer of a fellow lawmaker in Yamina, the defunct political party that was led by then-prime minister Naftali Bennett.

Alexander Fulbright contributed to this report 

 

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