High Court freezes legal proceedings against former IDF legal chief

Israel's Supreme Court has temporarily frozen legal proceedings against Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the former Military Advocate General. This decision comes after Likud MK Avichai Boaron and the right-wing Lavi organization requested an additional hearing concerning her role in leaking a video that alleged abuse of Palestinian prisoners at Sde Teman prison.

This development follows a previous ruling three weeks ago where the court found no grounds for judicial intervention in the investigation or in the state attorney's decision on potential charges against Tomer-Yerushalmi. The court had also ruled against granting the Justice Minister additional time to appoint an oversight official for the recently concluded investigation, clearing the path for the prosecution to proceed.

However, MK Boaron and Lavi submitted a new request for an additional Supreme Court hearing, urging reconsideration of the decision not to intervene. Their request hinges, in part, on the minority opinion presented by Supreme Court Justice David Mintz in the original petition. Justice Mintz argued that the petition should have been partially accepted.

Justice Mintz's opinion stressed the extraordinary sensitivity of the affair, which involves allegations that the head of the IDF’s law enforcement system was involved in leaking investigative materials and providing false information to the court. He contended that the investigation required the appointment of an oversight official and that proceedings should not advance without such supervision. Mintz argued that the basis for determining the state attorney's inability to handle the case had not changed, as the investigation had not been conducted under proper oversight.

While acknowledging that his conclusion could prolong the investigation, Justice Mintz asserted that the solution was not to disregard the previous ruling but to order the minister to exercise his authority. The petition highlighted that oversight of such sensitive criminal investigations is mandatory, underscoring the minister's authority in the matter.

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The request extends far beyond the boundaries of the affair: In the Boaron case, it was determined that oversight of a sensitive criminal investigation such as this one is mandatory, and from this derived the recognition of the minister’s authority, t