Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein announced Wednesday that
he would not appeal the verdict in Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's
ambassador case.
Weinstein said that there were mistakes and incorrect
rulings in the verdict, but at the same time the chances of succeeding in the
appeal were small.
The Jerusalem Magistrates' Court acquitted Lieberman last
month after almost a decade of investigations.
He was accused of fraud and a
breach of trust in the appointment of former ambassador to Latvia Zeev Ben
Aryeh. The acquittal allowed him to return to his previous position as foreign
minister.
The Attorney-General's Office said that after the verdict it
would decide whether to appeal or not.
"After weighing the options, the attorney-general has
decided to adopt the state-prosecutor's stance and not file an appeal on the
verdict. This is considering the prosecution policy, which acts with restraint
and control when appealing acquittals, as well as considering the professional
assessments that an appeal would have little chance of succeeding."
Weinstein said that the court established factual rulings
that were different than the prosecution's facts.
Judicial law states that the
instance of an appeal will not interfere with the factual rulings of the
judges, excluding exceptional cases. Thus, Weinstein said, the rulings wouldn't
be challenged.
The attorney-general said, however, that this does not put a
stamp of approval on the foreign minister's actions.
"Lieberman's actions were not legitimate. Even though
the court acquitted him it still said his actions were not appropriate, not
moral and they didn't meet the expected standards of a public figure,
especially someone in a high position, such as a minister in the government of
Israel."
The judges had criticized the police and the prosecuting
lawyers on their investigations, but the state-prosecutor dismissed those
claims.
"During the trial things change, Moshe Lador said,
saying that the case eventually would be reexamined.
No comments:
Post a Comment