During the criminal investigations into former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit vetoed police requests to tap into the phones of Netanyahu’s wife and one of his sons, the Ynet news website reported Thursday, citing an unnamed former senior police investigator.
An investigator has said that police wanted to wiretap Yair and Sara Netanyahu, but that Mandelblit shot down such requests.
“We had zero access to electronic media, at the office and at home. Mandelblit didn’t authorize it,” the unnamed ex-cop said. “We asked to listen in — the Attorney General blocked it.
“We kept saying that Sara was running circles around us in questioning, and we can’t even check her phone to see if she said what she claims, or wrote what she claims, on issues tied to the probe,” the official said.
“We did not get permission to request court orders to wiretap them, and we kept complaining that we were being handicapped and our hands were being tied.”
The revelation came amid allegations that police used spyware to hack into the phones of hundreds of citizens without the required judicial oversight, including senior government officials, mayors, activist leaders and journalists.
However, the Ynet report appeared to refer to requests for standard wiretapping, rather than a full hack of a phone.
A report in Calcalist Monday claimed that NSO’s Pegasus spyware was used against Netanyahu’s other son, Avner, as well as against key witnesses in now-opposition leader Netanyahu’s ongoing trial in three corruption cases.
Media coverage of the alleged scandal, led by Calcalist in a series of reports over the past few weeks, has spurred an investigation and statements of concern from lawmakers, including Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Police have continuously denied any wrongdoing.
The allegations that Netanyahu’s close circle was targeted by police spyware without authorization have prompted the prosecution in Netanyahu’s trial to ask for, and be granted, a delay in proceedings to check the claims.
On Wednesday, Ynet reported, without citing sources, remarks that Mandelbit made in recent days during closed conversations about the spyware case.
Mandelblit reportedly said he was “very, very strict about the rights of the individual, including the individual rights of Yair Netanyahu. I did not approve of listening to either Yair or Sara.”
He said he was “very miserly” with giving approval for wiretaps due to privacy rights and that he was “very careful” before abusing such rights, even for suspects.
Mandelblit told Kan news on Wednesday that he had no connection to the ongoing police spying scandal and did not know if any of it was true.
In a phone call with a Kan reporter, Mandeblit said: “I don’t think anyone seriously thinks it is connected to me.”
Mandelblit, who ended his six-year tenure at the beginning of the month, said that the allegations were “disturbing.”
Incoming Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has said that she intends to investigate the allegations, noting that the scandal has led to “an alarming decline of public trust in law enforcement agencies, partly due to the affair.”
Police have insisted that any use of spyware to access phones was done under strict adherence to court orders, denying media reports of widespread abuse of their powers to spy on innocent citizens without court oversight.
After specific Calcalist allegations of spying against 26 individuals, police said an internal probe found that only three of them had been targeted, only one successfully, and all with judicial oversight. The police report was delivered to Bennett.
NSO’s Pegasus has made headlines due to its alleged use by countries around the world, in many of them as an undemocratic means to spy on dissidents and quash opposition.
Source: TOI
Header: (From L-R) Avner, Sara, Benjamin and Yair Netanyahu tour the Golan Heights on April 23, 2019. (PMO)