Ombudsman says ‘improper’ to omit that Mandelblit case was shut due to lack of guilt

The state prosecution ombudsman says there are no grounds to reexamine Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s role in the so-called Harpaz Affair, for which he was already cleared of any suspicion by Israel’s top court, and that failure by police and prosecutors to state that the case was shut due to an absence of guilt is an example of “improper conduct.”

Justice David Rozen, who holds the position of ombudsman of the state representatives in the courts, says in a legal opinion that despite Mandelblit’s request to then-state prosecutor Shai Nitzan to officially mark the reason for the closing of the probe into the affair a decade ago, there was a lack of transparency.

“This is not a technical matter. An open police case for serious offenses is, for many, a blemish,” writes Rozen. “It may provoke questions and thoughts that may damage his good name, as well as public trust.”

Rozen was responding to a complaint claiming Mandelblit’s case had been mishandled, and examining whether any information was hidden from officials who decided to close probe into the attorney general.

As Mandelblit moved to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the past months, the premier’s followers and supporters have attempted to discredit the attorney general by raising his role in the Harpaz Affair.