AG set to indict Israel Prisons chief in probe linked to Ben Gvir |
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has decided to file an indictment against Israel Prison Service Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi, after nearly a year of deliberation on the matter.
Yaakobi will be charged with breach of trust and obstructing an investigation, Hebrew media reported on Tuesday. He is suspected of informing Avishai Muallem, a former senior police detective in the West Bank, of a covert probe in which Muallem was a suspect.
In July, the State Attorney’s Office first announced it was considering filing charges, subject to a hearing, against the top warden.
Muallem, who has since been indicted, was being probed on suspicion of papering over investigations into Jewish nationalist violence in a bid to curry favor with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Yaakobi, who served as Ben Gvir’s security secretary at the time before moving to the Prison Service, is suspected of leaking the probe’s existence to Muallem over a wiretapped phone call.
He implied last year that he would resign if indicted.
Despite the report, Yaakobi’s lawyer Uri Corb denied he’d been informed of any decision to launch an indictment, and said the commissioner’s legal team had sent the attorney general and state attorney a letter earlier that day, containing “dramatic” information that must be reviewed before any such decision could be made.
“The........