Prosecutors inform Israel Prison Service chief of plans to indict him on ethics violations

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Aisman give Prison Service chief Kobi Yaakobi a three-week deadline to decide on a hearing date as they weigh whether to indict him for suspected ethical violations.

In July, the State Attorney’s Office announced it was considering filing charges, subject to a hearing, against Yaakobi on suspicion that he informed Avishai Muallem, formerly a senior police detective in the West Bank, of a covert probe involving him.

The prison chief is being granted a hearing to present evidence in his defense before prosecutors decide whether to formally charge him with breach of trust and obstructing an investigation. This hearing has not yet taken place.

Muallem, who has since been indicted, allegedly obstructed investigations into Jewish nationalist violence in a bid to curry favor with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Yaakobi, who served as Ben Gvir’s security secretary before moving to the Prison Service, is suspected of leaking the probe’s existence to Muallem over a wiretapped phone call.

The Prison Service chief’s attorney has been updated on the details of the hearing process, the Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) says in a statement. The DIPI, which operates under the State Attorney’s Office, investigates police and other internal security officials on suspicion of criminal offenses.