Police say they’ve completed Sde Teiman leak probe, but will have outside official review case

The Israel Police have completed a high-profile investigation into the Sde Teiman abuse leak, but will hold off on moving forward with the case until an external official can review their findings, police say.

“In light of the fact that this is a highly sensitive public matter… the chief commissioner believes it is appropriate to allow a senior professional official, external to the police, to examine the entirety of investigative actions carried out,” police say.

The identity of the official has not yet been decided, police say.

The case — which concerns the leaking of footage purporting to show reservists severely abusing a Gazan detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility — is at the heart of a power struggle between Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Justice Minister Yariv Levin.

After former military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi confessed to leaking the footage, Levin and his allies seized on the confession as further proof of widespread corruption within the justice system.

Levin accuses Baharav-Miara of having a conflict of interest and is demanding he be permitted to pick someone to oversee the investigation, since the attorney general’s office oversaw an earlier internal probe that failed to implicate Tomer-Yerushalmi.

Police note that their transfer of findings to an external official via the Justice Ministry is in accordance with a High Court decision to temporarily sideline Baharav-Miara from the case at Levin’s behest.

Levin previously nominated two officials to oversee the investigation, both of whom were rejected by the court.

The police legal adviser Elazar Kahana confirms to Ynet that Baharav-Miara, along with all other officials outside the Military Advocate General’s office, is not currently a suspect in the case.

Kahana met with his counterpart in the Justice Ministry to update him on the “factual situation report that arose from the investigation, insofar as it is relevant to the conflict of interest issue,” police say.

The Justice Ministry’s legal adviser will transfer the police’s findings to an “authorized review body” to check whether there is a need to carry out “additional investigative steps, summon additional witnesses and suspects, or alternatively, file indictments against suspects found to be relevant.”

Police deny reports that police chief Levy intervened in the probe amid political pressure from National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who is reportedly insistent on implicating Baharav-Miara in the scandal.