High Court orders state comptroller to freeze his October 7 investigation

The High Court of Justice issues an interim order against State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman barring him from continuing his investigation into the failures surrounding the devastating October 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught.

The court orders him not to summon officials to give their version of events or provide documentation to the State Comptroller’s Office, nor to publish any draft or final report that he may have already drawn up on aspects of his probe.

The judges write that they are basing the order on an agreement between the state comptroller and state agencies, including the IDF, from April, in which the court validated a framework for the comptroller’s investigation.

The court also conditionally orders the state comptroller to justify his investigation into areas of policy and strategy, which petitioners against his probe have said go beyond the remit of his office. Conditional orders switch the burden of proof from the petitioners to the respondent, and indicate that the court believes a petition has merit.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, one of the petitioners against Englman, welcomes the decision, saying, “An event of exceptional magnitude like the October 7 disaster requires a comprehensive, independent and nonpartisan investigation by a state commission of inquiry alone,” and asserts that the state comptroller’s investigation is compromising evidence, violating due process rights, and is designed “to prevent the establishment of a state commission of inquiry.”

Englman’s probe has drawn scrutiny in part because he was appointed under a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has rejected efforts to establish a state commission of inquiry to probe the October 7 attack.