The Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court on Monday ordered the release of four of the suspects held in a high-profile corruption case involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's inner circle, amid an uproar over alleged collusion between a judge and an Israel Securities Authority investigator assigned to the case.
A string of text messages exposed by Channel 10 News on Sunday suggested that Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court Judge Ronit Poznanski-Katz and ISA attorney Eran Shaham-Shavit coordinated arraignment proceedings in Case 4,000. Both have been removed from the case and are facing disciplinary proceedings.
Case 4,000 centers on potentially illicit dealings and conflict of interest involving Israeli telecom corporation Bezeq and the Walla news website, which Bezeq owns. The police allege that Bezeq's controlling shareholder, Shaul Elovitch, ensured positive coverage of the Netanyahu family by Walla in exchange for the prime minister promoting government regulations worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the company.
Elovitch, his wife Iris and their son Or, strategic adviser Eli Kamir and several senior Bezeq officials, as well as former Communications Ministry Director General Shlomo Filber and spokesman Nir Hefetz, two of Netanyahu's closest confidants, have all been arrested in the case.
Sunday's texting scandal prompted the attorneys representing all suspects to ask the court for their immediate release.
Attorney Yehudit Tirosh, head of the Securities Department at the State Attorney's Office, told the court that given the new information revealed by the media reports, the state was willing to have some of the suspects released from police custody and placed under house arrest.
Judge Ala Masarwa ordered that Iris Elovitch be placed under house arrest for 10 days, that Bezeq CEO Stella Handler be placed under house arrest for seven days, and that Or Elovitch and Bezeq vice president of Business Development Amikam Shorer each be placed under house arrest for five days.
Shaul Elovitch and Hefetz were remanded to police custody for an additional five days, while Kamir was remanded for an additional two days.
Filber, who has turned state's witness in the case, was remanded in custody for an additional 15 days on Friday.
"After reviewing the investigative material, I find that the level of reasonable suspicion concerning the suspects' involvement [in the case] has increased. The suspects who remain in custody are the prime suspects at the heart of the case and their release could compromise the investigation," Masarwa wrote in his ruling.
"It is the court's job to strike a balance between various interests, between the public interest and the personal interests of the suspects, and the violation of any rights. I rule that here, public interest must prevail."
Lawmakers on Monday blasted law enforcement officials, saying the Channel 10 News report called into question the integrity of the proceedings as a whole.
