Netanyahu
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The High Court of Justice on Thursday rejected a petition to open an investigation against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the 'Submarine Affair.'

The Movement for Integrity had asked the High Court to order the police and the State Prosecutor's Office to summon the Prime Minister as a suspect in the affair, in light of his findings regarding some of his associates.

The judges rejected the petitioners' argument in which they alleged that the investigators of the case received instructions not to examine the possibility of the prime minister being involved and accepted the state's argument that the interrogators were not restricted. "We have not been presented with any real reason justifying this clear and unequivocal clarification. The investigation does not reveal any grounds for intervention on this level."

The judges further noted, "As has been made clear in the past, law enforcement officials are given broad discretion regarding the opening of a criminal investigation and the manner in which it is conducted, and even more so when it comes to decisions involving the heads of the system ... The broad scope of discretion devoted to the prosecution authorities dictates limited judicial review of their decisions."

"It is easy to see that the petitioners' arguments are not based on any information or evidence, but rather on a logical conclusion based on the context: since we are dealing with whether persons close to the Prime Minister are involved in the affair, it is presumed that the Prime Minister must also be suspected of being involved in the affair. However, this logical reasoning is not self-evident, as the petitioners claim, and certainly cannot be said to suffice to justify the investigation of the Prime Minister under caution," the judges added.

The Movement for Integrity was required to reimburse the State NIS 10,000 in legal expenses.