Knesset advances bill to prevent police recommending indictments

With a proposal to make the prime minister immune from criminal investigation shelved over coalition disagreements, MKs vote to advance a bill that would prevent police from recommending indictments against public officials.

Following a heated plenary debate marred by technical failures that prevented a simple electronic poll, lawmakers vote 52 to 49 in an excruciating one-by-one count to pass the preliminary bill of Likud MK David Amsalem’s “Recommendations Law.”

In most criminal investigations, the State Prosecution is tasked with deciding whether to press charges or not, based on the investigation carried out by police. Amsalem’s bill would prevent police from presenting, at the end of an investigation, their conclusions as to whether criminal actions were committed (thus requiring an indictment)

Introducing the bill, Amsalem says that of the 40,000 criminal cases brought before the State Prosecution each year, around a third are not brought to trial despite police recommending charges.

“Those people’s lives are frozen for years until their cases are closed. The police ruin the lives of 15,000 people a year,” Amsalem says, in both a defense of claims that the bill is aimed at protecting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from ongoing criminal investigations against him and a tacit attack on the credibility of the investigators carrying out those probes.

“I care for the people of Israel. The people of Israel are important to me. And yes, the prime minister is one of them,” Amsalem adds.

Practically speaking however, the bill would mainly affect high-profile cases as it will only prevent recommendations in cases that are overseen by a state prosecutor.

The bill will now go to committee where lawmakers will prepare it for further plenary votes.

— Raoul Wootliff