Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said on Sunday that former Shas party chairman Aryeh Deri must wait until 2010 to run for public office. Responding to a query from the Movement for Quality Government, Mazuz wrote that the ban on Deri holding office must be seven years from the end of his sentence and not seven years from the time he was released. He added that the law was not unambiguous, but theoretically, there was room for this interpretation.

Deri announced recently that he was returning to political life, based on his being released in 2002. The announcement came a year after a ruling that he was not eligible to run for mayor of Jerusalem because not enough time had passed since his release.