MK Oren Hazan
MK Oren HazanHadas Parush/Flash 90

The Knesset's Ethics Committee decided Wednesday not to discuss complaints filed against Likud MK Oren Hazan. The decision was reached after Knesset Legal Advisor Eyal Yinon said the committee has no authority to discuss complaints dealing with the alleged behavior of a Knesset member before he entered the Knesset.

The complaints were filed following a Channel 2 report that alleged hazan had managed a casino in Bulgaria and that he had arranged call girls for clients and used drugs.

The committee stated that the decision “does not detract from the severity with which its members see the deeds attributed to MK Hazan, to the extent that these did, in fact, take place...”

The Ethics Committee members agreed, however, that Knesset Sepaker Yuli Edelstein's decision not to allow MK Hazan to chair plenum sessions as Deputy Speaker is “proper and correct.”

MK Hazan's attorney, Tzion Amir, said in response: “The Knesset's legal adviser examined the matter and determined that the Ethics Committee has no authority to discuss past events. Certainly if they are unproven and false from the core. Once the Ethics Committee has examined the matter, and even if the stricter opinions justified suspending him from chairing the sessions, two months ago, it is clear that now the situation needs to be brought back to what it was, and MK Hazan needs to be reinstated fully in his position.”