Former senior National Fraud Unit investigator Deputy-Commander (ret.) Boaz Guttman cautioned reporters Tuesday about reading too much into the announcements of meetings between the police and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz over evidence in the investigation of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Police met Tuesday night with Mazuz in Jerusalem to discuss the investigation, but confirmed that the case had not been sent to the state prosecutors.
The minister is suspected of running personal business affairs while serving in a cabinet position, as well as other crimes related to breach of public trust, fraud, bribery and money laundering.
The charges are connected to a consultancy firm registered in his daughter's name, through which police believe the minister channelled millions of dollars, in addition to his own business.
But "until the attorney general notified the suspect telling him that he will be indicted and that he has 30 days to request a hearing, this back-and-forth with Mazuz holds no substantial information," Guttman told The Jerusalem Post. "Even if the police think they are finished with the investigation, they could be asked by state prosecutors to go back and complete lines of inquiry."
Once an investigation is completed, police make their recommendation as to whether to indict or not.
Guttman, who served 21 years on the force, explained Tuesday night that it is the state prosecutors, and not the attorney general who decides whether to indict a suspect.
The power that Mazuz wields is in his ability to actually launch an investigation against a politician at any level, including the cabinet -- or the prime minister's office. It was Mazuz who launched the first and subsequent investigations into the corruption allegations against former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, probes that eventually led to the toppling of his administration.