Justice Ministry to pass Sde Teiman video leak probe to state attorney rather than AG

The Justice Ministry intends to pass the police investigation into the Sde Teiman abuse video leak scandal to State Attorney Amit Aisman rather than his boss, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, claiming there is still concern she has a conflict of interest in the case.

The move comes after the High Court of Justice ordered the ministry’s legal adviser, Yael Kotik, to choose a legal official to handle the case after police completed their probe into the leak of footage purporting to show reservists severely abusing a Gazan detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility.

The affair is one aspect of a broad power struggle between Baharav-Miara and Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who accuses the attorney general of having a conflict of interest in the case after her office oversaw an internal probe that recommended not opening a criminal investigation into the leak’s source. That source ended up being ex-military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who admitted to the leak.

Last fall, Levin demanded that he be allowed to select someone from outside the state prosecution to oversee the investigation. The probe was ongoing at the time, with Baharav-Miara’s role still an open question, and the court granted his request. While judges allowed Levin to pick a supervisor, they rejected both of his nominees, who did not meet the guidelines set in their ruling.

After completing the investigation, police passed a summary of their findings to the Justice Ministry and requested that Baharav-Miara be allowed to begin overseeing the case, saying they ruled her out as a suspect in the affair.

Levin has nevertheless continued to insist on excluding her, and the case file sat idle in the Justice Ministry for a month.

Kotik writes in her opinion submitted to the High Court that Aisman’s involvement in the initial probe was limited. “As such… he is the most senior official in the system to whom the investigative materials can be transferred for review,” she continues.