A complaint was filed against Prime Minister Netanyahu’s advisers after several people protested outside the home of a state witness named Shlomo Filber, who is due to testify against the Prime Minister. In response, the state prosecutor, who is going after Netanyahu for a slew of what many are calling trumped up charges, has ordered the cell phones of his advisers to be confiscated reports Haaretz.
Below is a tweet of the alleged “harassment”
איזה גועל נפש. וזה בכלל אמור להיות לספר תורה pic.twitter.com/RuaJe3v4df
— Nati Tucker נתי טוקר (@nati_tucker) August 30, 2019
Oddly, Israel Hayom journalist Akiva Bigman reported that the Filber’s attorney said that his client never filed a harassment complaint even though the police claimed that he did. Bigman tried to contact the police to find out which side was lying. The police refused to respond to his query.
פרקליטו של @filbers טוען שהוא לא התלונן על הטרדה. מנגד, המשטרה באמצעות כתביה טוענת שכן.
פניתי לדוברות המשטרה לתגובה.
להלן תגובתה.
מישהו מבין מה קורה פה? pic.twitter.com/r6bih5OQPV— Akiva Bigman (@akibigman) October 28, 2019
Under orders from the state prosecutors, the police seized the cellphones of Likud spokesperson Jonathan Orich as well as Netanyahu’s media adviser, Ofer Golan “due to clear investigative needs,” the Justice Ministry said in a statement on Monday. The two were also questioned by the anti-corruption unit of the Israeli police.
Netanyahu called the move a a “terror attack on Israeli democracy and the right to privacy that every citizen should enjoy.” He added that the police are “threatening my immediate environment, and thereby stopping me from reacting to the onslaught of criminal leaks against me that has been going on incessantly. Why isn’t this being investigated?”
The prime minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu also had some harsh words for the state prosecutor’s instructions saying: ” Imagine all the things you have in your phone. Your whatsapp, your pictures, your Instagram, maybe intimate videos, maybe an affair or just general secrets.” Referring to the police who confiscated the phones he added: ” Now imagine that hundreds of strangers are searching through your phone with impunity. This type of invasion of privacy is only justified in cases of murder or rape.”
Transportation minister Betzalel Smotrich also weighed in blasting the decision saying: “The seizure of the prime minister’s adviser’s phones is a daunting breach of a red line for the prosecution.” Making a reference to email scams, Smotrich added: “It’s hard to shake the feeling that the cases against Netanyahu are crumbling and the prosecutor’s office is launching a ‘fhishing’ campaign non-stop in an effort to recruit state witnesses against him at all costs. And it is already approaching the level of the end of democracy. “
