State’s witness sues justice minister for breaking gag order on probe

Nir Hefetz, a former aide and confidant to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who turned state’s witness, has filed a civil lawsuit against Justice Minister Amir Ohana for defying a gag order to publicly detail alleged misconduct by police during his interrogation.

Earlier this month at the Knesset, Ohana railed against what he said was police misconduct in leaning on Hefetz to testify against Netanyahu in three corruption cases, revealing details of alleged illegitimate pressure tactics used by investigators that had been sealed by the court, supposedly to protect Hefetz’s privacy.

On Thursday, his attorneys accused Ohana of making “wrongful, contemptible and malicious use of the Knesset platform to hurt Nir Hefetz and his family and to attempt to dissuade him from [sticking to] the true testimony he provided.”

They further called the media reports that followed from Ohana’s comments “deadly character assassination.”

The lawyers accused Ohana of seeking “to maximize the damage to the plaintiff out of clear and pure malicious intent, without any justification — material, legal, public or otherwise.”

Hefetz is a key witness in Case 4000, which involves suspicions the premier pushed regulations benefiting Bezeq-controlling shareholder Shaul Elovitch in exchange for positive coverage from Elovitch’s Walla news site.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit last week announced he would charge Netanyahu with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in Case 4000, and additional fraud and breach of trust charges in two other cases.

Speaking at the Knesset earlier this month, Ohana, who has parliamentary immunity, described how investigators called in a woman who was not directly connected to Case 4000 for questioning, asked her “invasive and intrusive” questions about her relationship with Hefetz, then engineered an “accidental” meeting between the woman and Hefetz in the hallway to pressure him. After the two met, investigators allegedly told Hefetz, according to Ohana, that “we know everything and will drop a bomb on your family.”

Ohana used the Hefetz investigation to assert that the justice system was acting with malicious intent against Netanyahu, accusing it of “protecting criminals” and allowing “rot to take over.”

Ohana on Thursday was unrepentant, saying in a Facebook post: “I don’t take back a single word.” The Likud minister said that when faced with rumors that Hefetz faced “extortion” by investigators to testify against Netanyahu, amid “other wrong investigative actions” used against the prime minister and other suspects, he deemed it necessary to shed light on the allegations at the legislature.

“What I said at the Knesset podium was necessary for the parliamentary debate on the issue. It was at the heart of the matter. I do not believe it is possible to discuss criticism of law enforcement authorities without explaining what the criticism pertains to.”

He also repeated the claim that he was unaware of the details of the gag order when he made the statements at the Knesset.

Hefetz had previously warned Ohana of the impending lawsuit, and had demanded a public apology and unspecified compensation.

Hefetz also filed a lawsuit against radio commentator Yakov Bardugo. His attorneys allege that Bardugo disseminated details of the gagged information in a WhatsApp Likud group with hundreds of members.

Mandelblit has vowed to look into possible wrongdoing by investigators in the investigation. But he also issued an unprecedented rebuke of Ohana’s claims, saying they were an attempt to “mislead the public” for Netanyahu’s political benefit.

Channel 12 news has quoted sources close to Hefetz as insisting there was “no connection” between police questioning and his decision to turn state’s witness.