Senior law enforcement officials: Zini dragging his feet with unprofessional probe into Arab MKs

Anonymous senior law enforcement officials say that Shin Bet director David Zini is intentionally dragging his feet and failing to carry out a proper investigation into Arab public officials for political reasons.

“Zini is playing for time in order to create a narrative, and therefore he is not giving the material to the police so they can start to investigate,” a senior official tells Channel 12.

The Shin Bet, according to one of the officials, “is operating in a negligent fashion and is lying. They are in effect undermining the investigation at this stage through unprofessional stubbornness. We could have moved forward long ago if they were doing their job and not going beyond it.”

“When you open an investigation against public officials, you must have official approvals, even if the initial suspects are their aides,” says an official. “Without these approvals, the police and Shin Bet turn into a tool for the government to carry out political assassinations.”

Zini is seeking to question four Arab politicians in a case of alleged foreign election interference, but hasn’t provided prosecutors with evidence regarding three of them. That prompted a rare public rebuke from Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who stressed that no one could be questioned without sufficient evidence.

The three are Ra’am party head Mansour Abbas, Ta’al faction leader Ahmad Tibi and Balad faction chief Sami Abou Shehadeh.

Former Joint List chief Ayman Odeh is suspected of receiving hundreds of thousands of shekels in cash from a foreign source, according to Hebrew media reports.