Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday appealed to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to put an end to the leaks regarding the investigations against him, which are broadcast nearly every evening in the media.
In a letter to the attorney general signed by attorney Navot Tel Tzur and attorney Tal Shapira, it was written that the prime minister's investigations were accompanied fro the start by what they call "incessant tendencies to the leaking of materials from the interrogation rooms, materials that naturally should remain only in the hands of law enforcement."
"These leaks have gone out of control over the last few days. Every evening we are shocked to see that the news broadcasts on the various channels are being opened with 'new and noisy revelations' from the investigations and biased leaks of partial, distorted and biased investigative materials with the clear aim of creating negative public opinion about the government against the background of the upcoming elections and also to put pressure on the Attorney General who is currently sitting on these files," the letter states.
The lawyers noted that they believe this is an unusual phenomenon. "This is a flood of leaks that has never been seen before in the history of the State of Israel, and it is doubtful whether [anything of the like] in the history of the entire Western world. This is nothing to do with fair procedure."
They noted in their letter that "a tendentious leak of classified materials by public officials constitutes a serious breach of the public trust given to them, which ostensibly amounts to criminal offenses of fraud and breach of trust under Section 284 of the Penal Law, as well as the offense of disclosure of breach of duty under section 117 of the Penal Law."
The lawyers mentioned in their letter that Liora Galat-Berkovitz, who leaked investigative materials to the media on the eve of elections from the investigations of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, received a severe criminal conviction.
"These leaks were made with the clear aim of harming the prime minister, in order to create negative public opinion against him, in order to influence the decisions that are pending in his case and to influence the results of the upcoming elections, democratic elections, all by interested parties from within the law enforcement authorities," the attorneys noted in their letter to the attorney general.
"In these circumstances, we hereby appeal to the Attorney General to order an immediate investigation of the matter, whether by the PID or any other competent and appropriate body," the attorneys concluded.