Police announced Tuesday that they had completed a high-profile investigation into the Sde Teiman leak scandal and passed the case to the Justice Ministry’s legal adviser, rather than state prosecutors under Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

The case concerns the leak of footage purporting to show reservists sexually abusing a Gazan detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility, but has since morphed into the center of a power struggle between Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Baharav-Miara.

Levin and other right-wing politicians have accused Baharav-Miara of having a conflict of interest and even suggested her guilt in the leak scandal, after her office oversaw an internal probe that failed to implicate the leak’s source — ex-military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi.

Despite coalition lawmakers’ repeated insinuations of wrongdoing by the attorney general, police did not find evidence to support claims that Baharav-Miara or any of her aides were involved in the leak or its subsequent cover-up.

Police nevertheless announced they would coordinate with the Justice Ministry, which is expected to appoint an “external official” to determine whether investigators should continue the probe or move on to filing indictments.

Police Commissioner Danny Levy decided to turn the case over to the Justice Ministry in order to “strengthen public trust” in the “highly sensitive public matter,” a police statement said.

Despite police’s decision to contact the Justice Ministry rather than the attorney general, officers were still requesting the ministry reconsider its unsubstantiated assertion Baharav-Miara has a conflict of interest.

Police legal adviser Elazar Kahana sent a letter on........

© The Times of Israel