Former AG Mandeblit denies any knowledge of police spying scandal
Former lawyer common Avichai Mandelblit tells the Kan public broadcaster that he has no connection to the continued police spying scandal and doesn’t know if any of it’s true.
In a telephone name with a Kan reporter, Mandeblit says: “I don’t assume anybody severe thinks it’s linked to me.”
Mandelblit, who ended his six-year tenure final week, says that the allegations that police used the NSO Group’s Pegasus spy ware to hack the telephones of presidency officers, activists and different figures are “disturbing.”
“After all, I’m disturbed by it. I hope it’s not true,” he says. “If the allegations are true, they’ll be investigated and held accountable.”
Mandeblit rejected any claims that he or his workplace permitted investigations of any of these talked about, together with the directors-general of a number of ministries.
“No person permitted investigating any director-general [of a government ministry],” he says, referencing former Justice Ministry director Emi Palmor and former Finance Ministry administrators Shai Babad and Keren Terner.
However, he notes, his workplace permitted investigations, and never hacking of telephones.
“If [the allegation] is appropriate, and I don’t know whether it is, that’s not an investigation, that’s one thing else fully,” he says. “I don’t know of any investigations towards them, have been there any investigations?”
In an preliminary police probe introduced to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett final night time, police claimed that — of the 26 names purportedly hacked — simply three have been focused, with judicial approval, and just one was efficiently hacked.
