AG’s office blasts ‘unconstitutional’ bill to give coalition power to delay PM’s trial

The Attorney General’s Office savages draft legislation that would allow the coalition to delay without limit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial, calling it “unconstitutional” and asserting that it would severely harm the principle of equality before the law and the independence of the legal and law enforcement systems.

The bill has been proposed by far-right MK Limor Son Har-Melech of the Otzma Yehudit party and is set to be considered today by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, which decides if the government will support a draft law in the Knesset.

The legislation, which consists of just one operative sentence, would enable the Knesset House Committee to delay the trial of a prime minister or cabinet minister at any time after an indictment and before a final ruling.

“The bill allows political considerations to gain a foothold in the criminal process, while seriously harming the integrity of the criminal process, the principle of equality before the law, the independence of the judicial system and the law enforcement system, and the principle of separation of powers,” write two of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s deputies in a legal position paper.

The deputies assert that it appears the bill was drafted to help the prime minister “evade justice,” and that it was designed with his personal needs in mind.

“In view of the profound and fundamental violation of the fundamental principles of a democratic regime, as well as the direct impact of the bill on the personal interests of the prime minister, the proposal is unconstitutional, must be opposed, and must not be advanced,” the position paper states.

Since the legislation is a private members bill and not a government bill, the opposition of the Attorney General’s Office will not prevent it from being advanced should the government so decide.