A three-judge panel at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court
unanimously acquitted former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman of fraud and
breach of trust charges on Wednesday morning, clearing the way for him to
retake his cabinet post. After the decision was handed down, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Liberman and indicated that the exonerated
politician would be re-assuming the position of Israel’s top diplomat in the
near future.
Liberman, an MK at the head of the Yisrael Beytenu party, was
indicted in December 2012 for illegally using his clout as foreign minister to
promote former ambassador to Latvia Ze’ev Ben Aryeh, allegedly as a reward for
Ben Aryeh leaking to Liberman details of a separate corruption investigation
against him.
The judges said in their decision that Liberman should have
informed the Foreign Ministry’s appointments committee of his relationship with
Ben Aryeh when Ben Aryeh was considered for the post. However, “there was no
proof of a sufficiently severe conflict of interests” to merit a conviction,
they said.
“After perusing the evidence on the matter, we’ve ruled that
Ben Aryeh’s appointment didn’t constitute a promotion for him; nor was it a
‘springboard’ for other future senior positions,” the judges said in a summary
of their decision. “Thus, Ben Aryeh’s appointment befitted his qualifications
and abilities, as well as the needs of the Foreign Ministry, which wasn’t
blessed with many workers whose Russian [language skills] and expertise in the
Russian [political] landscape are comparable to Ben Aryeh’s.”
The judges also ripped into Liberman’s former deputy foreign
minister, Danny Ayalon, saying Ayalon’s testimony against his former boss
regarding the appointment of Ben Aryeh was “uneven” and may have been driven by
personal animus.
“There’s an irreconcilable contiguity between the date of
Ayalon’s ouster from Yisrael Beytenu’s Knesset list and the time at which
Ayalon chose to turn to police and the media and criticize Liberman over Ben
Aryeh’s appointment and other matters, clearly contradicting opinions he had
voiced earlier,” they said. “Thus there is, at the very least, reasonable doubt
regarding Ayalon’s claims, and [the court] cannot make a criminal conviction of
the defendant based on his testimony.”
After the verdict was handed down, Liberman thanked the
court and expressed relief over the positive ending to his years-long legal
ordeal.
“It’s behind me now,” he said to reporters in the
courthouse. “I want to thank my family and my friends who stood beside me… who
believed in my innocence and lent me their support. I have no intention of
dealing with this episode any more. I’ve put it behind me and I’m focusing on
the challenges that await us. That’s it.”
The former — and likely future — foreign minister also
thanked his supporters.
“Thank you to those thousands of citizens,” he said. “In the
past few days I’ve received thousands of phone calls, emails, faxes with
supporting messages… I thank you all.”
Afterward he headed to the Western Wall, where he donned a
skullcap and prayer shawl.
Michal Darel, the prosecutor in the case, said the state
prosecution would “carefully study the decision” and decide whether to file an
appeal. “We respect the decision,” she said.
Netanyahu spoke to Liberman after his acquittal and
indicated that he would soon be re-installed as foreign minister, after a
hiatus of nearly a year.
“I congratulate you on your unanimous acquittal, and I’m
glad that you’re returning to the Israeli cabinet so that we can continue to
work together for the benefit of the Israeli people,” Netanyahu told Liberman,
according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar indicated the same. “I think
Avigdor Liberman will return to the Foreign Ministry and serve as a senior
cabinet minister; he’s made clear his preference in the matter,” Sa’ar said in
a statement.
Informed sources in the Foreign Ministry confirmed to The
Times of Israel that Liberman would indeed be re-assuming his post. Defense
Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and other politicians in
Netanyahu’s coalition also congratulated Liberman.
A guilty verdict with a sentence carrying moral turpitude
and a jail term of more than three months would have forced Liberman to leave
politics for seven years.
Liberman stepped down from his cabinet position in December
2012 after the state prosecution announced its intention to file an indictment
against him over the Ben Aryeh affair. He currently serves as chairman of the
Knesset’s powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Netanyahu has been
serving as interim foreign minister pending a decision in Liberman’s trial.
On Wednesday morning, Netanyahu wished Liberman luck. The
two have been closely linked politically since their Likud and Yisrael Beytenu
parties formed a joint list in the national elections in January. Liberman is
also a former director-general of Netanyahu’s Prime Minister’s Office in the
late 1990s.
The prosecution claimed that Ben Aryeh handed the former
minister a note containing information on a major corruption case against him
during a private meeting between the two in a hotel room in Minsk in 2008.
Liberman did not dispute the fact of the meeting or the existence of the note,
but has testified that as soon as he realized what information the note
contained, he discarded it in the hotel room’s bathroom. The former corruption
investigation against Liberman that was discussed in the note was closed for
lack of evidence.
The three-judges hearing the case were Hagit Kalmanovitch,
Eitan Korhauser and Yitzhak Shimoni.
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