Lawyer, judge, wife of another judge arrested in sex-for-judgeship scandal

The police arrested a senior lawyer, a magistrate’s court judge and the wife of another magistrate’s court judge on Wednesday under suspicion of involvement in a scheme of sexual favors for judicial appointments.

The identities of the three suspects are currently under gag order, but the police are expected to bring the central suspect to court and then to be released with conditions, while the other two suspects will be released from the police station with conditions.

The suspects have been questioned nearly all day since the morning.

Some or all members of the powerful judicial selection committee will be required to testify in the affair, including Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Supreme Court President Esther Hayut.

Also on Wednesday, two announcements came out of the Israel Bar Association.

One announcement said that IBA President Efi Naveh was suspending his activities in favor of lawyer Uri Keinan and another announcement said that, in light of the criminal investigation’s developments, the IBA’s national council would hold an emergency meeting on Sunday.

Separately from Wednesday’s developments. Naveh has been recently indicted for defrauding Ben-Gurion International Airport’s customs’ check point in a case relating to actions conducted by him and a female partner.

Earlier this week, three senior members of the IBA resigned their posts saying that their concerns about corruption prevented them from continuing.

State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan is personally overseeing the current probe as Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has recused himself from involvement in the case due to a close friendship with the senior lawyer who is the central suspect.

The central suspect is being investigated for demanding sexual favors from the wife-suspect of a magistrate’s judge who was seeking promotion to become a district court judge a couple years ago.

The interrogators raided the house of the main suspect and later arrested him, while other suspects related to the affair were interrogated.

“The police today allowed partial publication of details of the affair that embarrasses the judicial system,” former president of the Supreme Court Dorit Beinisch said on Army Radio in regard to the allegations. “It seems that something very serious has happened here regarding the procedure of the appointment of judges to the courts.”

Opposition leader MK Shelly Yachimovich said in a statement that the “judicial selection committee operated under terror and corruption, under the destruction leadership of Justice Minister [Ayelet] Shaked, and the rotten environment and broken alliances that created it are the ground for the horrific affair being exposed today.”

“The judges, members of the committee, were forces to act in a…threatening atmosphere,” added Yachimovich.

Shaked and Hayut issued an unusual joint statement on Wednesday rejecting any allegations of broad-based corruption in the appointment of judges.

The statement said that so far, only two judges’ appointments are being probed in contrast to the 334 judges and registrars appointed by the Judicial Selection Committee under Shaked.

In addition, the statement said that they trust the police to get to the truth regarding the investigation and that they hope the probe will be completed speedily so as to remove any questions about the legal establishment beyond those few suspected.

Despite Shaked and Hayut’s joint statement, MK Revital Swid blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Shaked for the scandal and politicizing the judicial system.

“The new affair highlights the four-year campaign of destruction, in which the prime minister and the justice minister abused the judicial system,  politicizing it” Swed said. “When this is the norm on the, it is no wonder that the committee for the appointment of judges is also desecrated.  

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