Likud MK files petition asking High Court to prevent AG from involvement in Sde Teiman leak investigation

Likud MK Avichay Buaron, together with the Lavi conservative legal advocacy organization, files a petition to the High Court of Justice requesting that it issue an order to prevent Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara from participating in the investigation into former military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi’s leak of a video from the Sde Teiman detention center.

The letter is the latest development in the most recent feud between Baharav-Miara and the government. Justice Minister Yariv Levin told Baharav-Miara last night that she could not be involved in the investigation, accusing her of lying to the High Court about the incident and implicitly alleging that she had known of the leak.

Baharav-Miara today rejected Levin’s statement and said she and her office were continuing to deal with the investigation.

Buaron, in his petition, alleges that documents submitted by the Attorney General’s Office to the High Court demonstrated that Baharav-Miara was in close contact with officials in the Military Advocate General’s Office regarding the probe into the leak, and that the attorney general has therefore played a key role in closing that investigation.

“The attorney general was fully involved in the probe and in the decision [to close it],” says Buaron’s office in announcing the submission of the petition, filed with the Lavi legal organization.

“For months, she has been deeply involved in this affair – in the details of the investigation, in the instructions to the deputy military advocate general, and in the decision itself to end the probe, and now she is also seeking to represent the state in a petition that concerns her own actions,” says Buaron.

Baharav-Miara told Levin earlier today that those same accusations, which he made against her, “lack any basis, factual or legal,” and insisted that he did not have the authority to remove her from an investigation.

The stand-off between the minister and the attorney general has the potential to flare into a constitutional crisis, if Levin goes ahead and appoints another public official to investigate the affair — as he has said he will — which would create uncertainty as to which official law enforcement agencies must listen to. A High Court ruling, however, could resolve that issue.