Prosecution decides to not investigate Netanyahu's role in submarine case

Israel's prosecution decided not to open a criminal investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's involvement in the submarine case (Case 3000) on Wednesday. This is despite the State Inquiry Committee having sent a warning letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu in June regarding an investigation into his submarine purchases.

"There is nothing in the warning letter from the Inquiry Committee itself that would lead us to change our decision not to investigate the Prime Minister within the framework of the criminal case regarding the submarines," replied attorney Yaron Golomb from the Taxation and Economics Prosecution Office in Tel Aviv. This followed a request from attorneys Yuval Yoaz and Avigdor Feldman from Israeli Democracy Watch, who sought a criminal investigation against Netanyahu following the warning letter.

The warning letter sent to Netanyahu stated, "Mr. Netanyahu's conduct in the matters under investigation by the committee resulted in wide-reaching and systematic disruption in work processes, power structure, and harm to decision-making mechanisms in a number of sensitive issues. This therefore endangered national security and harmed the foreign relations and economic interests of the State of Israel."

The State Prosecution has been debating the case since June, and the request from Israeli Democracy Watch was transferred from the Deputy Attorney General’s Office for Economic Enforcement to the Taxation and Economics Prosecution, which handles the submarine case within the Tel Aviv District Court, represented by Attorney Golomb.

They have since decided not to investigate the Prime Minister.

Warning from Democracy Watch

Attorneys Yuval Yoaz and Avigdor Feldman, representing Israeli Democracy Watch, stated: “The findings of the investigation into Case 3000, and the interim conclusions and warning letters from the State Inquiry Committee regarding the submarines and naval vessels, demonstrate how regrettable the decision of the former Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, was to grant immunity to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the police investigation into this case even began in 2017.”

According to them, “The evidentiary threshold for opening a criminal investigation is low - it requires reasonable suspicion of the individual committing an offense, and it is clear that such suspicion exists in Netanyahu’s case regarding the naval vessels. The Attorney General should draw courage from Judge Asher Grunis, who heads the State Inquiry Committee, and confront the Prime Minister regarding the most serious corruption case in the country’s history.”

The inquiry was not intended to be about corruption, bribery and skimming off the top some of the purchase price, but instead about whether purchasing the submarines was the right policy and whether the right processes and sufficient feedback from the IDF and Defense Ministry were in place for arriving at the correct decision.

Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.