AG tells ministerial panel she won’t attend 2nd hearing on potential sacking

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara tells the ministerial committee tasked with recommending to the government whether she be fired that she will not attend a second dismissal hearing that it has called for her tomorrow.

“A situation in which, from now on, the government can end the service of an attorney general without oversight and due to ulterior and, God forbid, corrupt motives, including illegitimate influence over ongoing criminal proceedings, constitutes a severe blow to the rule of law,” Baharav-Miara tells the five-member committee.

The committee held its first hearing on Monday, which Baharav-Miara also refused to attend, describing it as “a sham hearing with a predetermined outcome.”

The government began the process for firing the attorney general in March under rules laid down in 2000.

But when it failed to appoint the requisite members to a public, professional committee tasked with recommending to the government whether the attorney general should be fired, the government changed the process in June and empowered a ministerial committee to make the recommendation instead.