Phones confiscated from Likud officials only to be searched if necessary

On Monday, Israel Police and the Justice Ministry released a joint statement explaining that an order requested from the court allowing a search of cellular phones confiscated from senior officials from the Likud party’s headquarters was only for a limited search with the sole intention of finding information relevant to the incident of which the investigation is focused on. The judge will carry out the search for relevant material if possible and not the investigators.

The officials are being investigated for their suspected involvement in the harassment of Shlomo Filber, a state witness in Case 4000.

“Contrary to mistaken publications, the search order being discussed will be focused strictly on finding information relevant to the investigation,” read the statement, which stressed that the confiscation of the cellphones was required due to clear necessities for the investigation. 

The officials from Likud headquarters are Ofer Golan and Yonatan Orich. The police clarified that the phones were confiscated will only be opened with permission and an order from a court, according to Maariv.

Earlier Monday morning, attorney Dror Arad Ayalon, who represents Filber, addressed the announcement by the police about the investigation of officials from Likud headquarters, due to suspicions that they harassed Filber, one of the state witnesses in case 4000.

“Filber didn’t feel harassed at the time and not even after the fact. The demonstration in front of his house isn’t different from any other protest in front of the homes of functionaries,” said Ayalon in an interview with Army Radio.

Yesterday, the police announced that they were investigating suspicions that Filber had been harassed. In recent days, multiple officials have been investigated, including Golan and Orich, for involvement in the harassment of Filber. In August, a vehicle with a loudspeaker system drove along the street where he lives.

Netanyahu’s office released a statement on the investigation, stating: “The persecution does not stop for a moment.”

The statement said, “The ink on the 1,000-page defense, which the prime minister’s lawyers submitted in the hearing, has not yet dried – and already, the entire immediate surroundings of the prime minister are being investigated.”

The prime minister’s comment claimed that the goal of the complaint is to neutralize Netanyahu’s ability to fight “public opinion” against a series of leaks against him, which harm him and his associates.

Netanyahu’s lawyer, Amit Hadad, released a statement on the complaint as well, saying that the allegations are “baseless” and that “it would be better if they are not investigated at all.”

“We have no doubt that in the end, the case against Mr. Golan will be closed for one simple reason: He has never harassed state witness Filber or any other witness,” the statement concluded.

According to Case 4000, Netanyahu fired Communications Ministry director-general Avi Berger and hired Filber to ensure that government policies favored Bezeq company owner Shaul Elovitch.

In exchange, Bezeq’s news site Walla would give Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, positive coverage – arranged by Elovitch, his wife, Hefetz, and several top employees of Walla.

Originally, this was considered to be a case of bribery in part, but Mandelblit is reportedly considering it to be a lighter crime, such as a breach of trust.

Yonah Jeremy Bob and Tamar Beeri contributed to this report.