From the Liveblog of
Monday, February 26, 2018
Text transcript seems to show investigator was informing judge, not coordinating
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleA full transcript of a texting conversation yesterday between a judge and an investigator for the Israel Securities Authority regarding the remanding of suspects in the Bezeq case reveals that their infraction may not have been as severe as first thought.
Channel 10, which broke the story last night, said at the time that the judge, Ronit Poznansky-Katz, and the investigator, Eran Shacham-Shavit, seemed to be coordinating her rulings on the length of the remand extensions she would hand down to the suspects. However, the longer transcript seems to show that Shacham-Sharvit was merely updating her in advance as to what conditions he and police investigators would be seeking ahead of a meeting in her chambers.
In the morning, the two coordinate the meeting, the texts show, and when he arrives in the afternoon, he texts her to let her know that he is there but that he will be waiting for the arrival of the police representative before entering her chambers.
It is then that he informs her of the length of the remand extensions that he and the police representatives plan to ask for, including pointing out the suspects in whose cases there are differences of opinion between him and police.
The transcript does not seem to imply that the judge was acceding to his requests ahead of time; only acknowledging them and saying that she would have to “look surprised” when he presented them at the meeting.
The investigation, Case 4000, involves suspicions that the chairman and controlling shareholder of the telecommunications giant Bezeq, Shaul Elovitch, ordered the Walla news site, which he owns, to grant positive coverage to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his family, in exchange for the prime minister allegedly advancing regulations benefiting Bezeq and Elovitch.
Both the judge and the investigator were suspended from dealing with the case after Channel 10 broke its story on the texts last night.
The Times of Israel Community.