In a surprising development in the affair involving former Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, Supreme Court Justice Dafna Barak-Erez on Friday temporarily froze the transfer of responsibility for the investigation to State Attorney Amit Aisman.

Barak-Erez wrote in her decision that “for caution’s sake only, and without taking any position at this stage, I hereby order a temporary stay of implementation of the ruling that is the subject of the request, by freezing the existing situation with respect to the State Attorney’s handling of the investigation file, until a further decision is issued.”

The decision is surprising, since about two weeks ago, the High Court rejected objections to transferring the case to the State Attorney, ruling that Aisman was not connected to the events and circumstances at the center of the investigation in a way that would preclude his involvement.

Now, however, in response to a request for an additional hearing filed by MK Avichay Buaron, the Choosing Life forum of bereaved families, and the Lavi organization, the court has temporarily halted implementation of that ruling until the justices decide how to proceed.

The ruling also rejected a request to give Justice Minister Yariv Levin additional time to appoint an outside official to oversee the investigation.

There are serious claims of conflicts of interest within the State Attorney’s Office. As a reminder, officials in the Attorney General’s Office and State Attorney’s Office covered up the leak of the doctored Sde Teiman video carried out by disgraced Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi by carrying out a feigned internal investigation and claiming that they were unsuccessful in identifying the source of the leak. Justice Minister Yariv Levin then demanded that an external party oversee the investigation. However, the High Court stymied those efforts by imposing impossibly harsh restrictions on the candidate’s qualifications. The Court then proceeded to disqualify Levin’s appointments twice, leading Levin to give up on his efforts for an untainted investigation.

In addition, there are deep suspicions that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara was deeply involved in the cover-up of the MAG affair. During his interrogation by the police over the lackluster internal investigation into the source of the leak, ex-Deputy Military Advocate General Brig. Gen Asael said that “all of my actions were guided and directed by the Attorney General’s office.” In addition, Baharav-Miara personally prevented the transfer of information on the case to Lahav 433.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)