Last month, attorneys Eli Zohar and Roy Blecher, who
represent Yoshiyahu Pinto, a popular and influential rabbi, met with Attorney
General Yehuda Weinstein. Pinto is suspected of trying to bribe Brig. Gen.
Efraim Bracha of the Israel Police investigation and intelligence division.
Ahead of the meeting, Weinstein had been about to announce
that he planned to indict Pinto on serious charges, pending a hearing, but
Zohar and Blecher gave Weinstein some presumably explosive information, the
nature of which cannot be disclosed and imprecise fragments of which were
leaked to the media last week. Weinstein decided to wait with his announcement
about Pinto, which is now not expected for some weeks at the least.
The story began two years ago, when the police National
Fraud Squad was investigating an alleged embezzlement at Hazon Yeshaya, a
Jerusalem-based religious charity. An examination of its accounts suggested
that some of its funds were diverted into a bank account identified with Pinto.
As a result, Pinto was questioned by police for the first
time in his life. His previous encounters with high-ranking police officers had
been under very different circumstances, in his strongholds in Ashdod and
Manhattan.
In addition to politicians, wealthy businessmen and known criminals,
Pinto’s large circle of associates was also known to include several top police
officers, past and present. Former commanders, among them Aryeh Amit, Uri
Barlev and Haim Klein, were frequent visitors to the young rabbi’s
institutions, as were senior officers on active duty. Some could be described
as groupies. What were they doing there?
“They weren’t necessarily there for religious reasons,” says
a figure with knowledge of the rabbi’s court. “They knew it was a power center
and they saw their commanders going there and wanted to connect to the same
center. Others enjoyed the benefits a place with considerable influence could
provide; some sought intelligence information. And if [the officers] needed help
with a job for a relative or financial aid, the rabbi was happy to help.”
Bracha was one of the officers who frequented Pinto’s
institutions. During the recent bribery trial of former Ramat Gan Mayor Zvi
Bar, it emerged that Pinto helped Bracha recruit an important prosecution
witness to testify against Bar.
The two grew close, as a result of which Pinto allegedly
sought Bracha’s aid when he was being investigated by police in connection to
the charity. According to police, Pinto offered Bracha a generous sum in
exchange for his aid. After the meeting, Bracha went to his superiors and told
them about their conversation. He had himself wired for sound and returned to
Pinto for further discussion, at which time Bracha recorded Pinto’s alleged
bribe offer. The Pinto case began making headlines.
At the time of the investigation, Police Commissioner
Yohanan Danino announced several appointments in the investigations division,
which since Danino became commissioner has not initiated a single “quality”
investigation against a senior government figure. After the appointments were
announced, Weinstein received messages to the effect that some of the
appointments were inappropriate and likely to cause a fiasco. The candidate to
head the investigations department, Brig. Gen. Uri Machluf, was revealed back
in 2008 to have ties with underworld boss Shalom Domrani, while the nominee to
head the special Lahav 433 unit, Maj. Gen. Menashe Arbiv, has had his
credibility questioned in the past by several senior officers, including Danino
himself.
Danino’s choice to head the National Fraud Squad was none
other than Bracha, an appointment that has also generated objections. Some of
these came from associates of Pinto, who argued that Pinto and Bracha had a
long-standing relationship that included Pinto supporting Bracha financially.
These claims were investigated by the heads of the prosecution, who said there
was nothing to them, with State Prosecutor Moshe Lador and his deputy, Eli
Abarbanel, among those supporting Bracha’s appointment. It isn’t clear how
deeply they investigated any of these candidates, or whether they paid enough
attention to the deep ties that have developed between various rabbis and
senior police commanders.
Ironically, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch
announced on Friday that he is extending Danino’s term as national commissioner
by another year. If the scandal simmering at national police headquarters turns
out to be true, Danino will be the last person who could pick up the pieces.
Everything should be clarified soon, perhaps even this week,
with the arrival in Israel of several people who could shed light on what could
turn out to be one of the most embarrassing cases ever, one that a serious
commissioner and more effective gatekeepers could have prevented.
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