The special committee investigating the so-called Pegasus Affair over improper use of spyware by state agencies has postponed Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara's interview until the Supreme Court determines the scope of the investigation, Israel Hayom has learned.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
This decision comes after Baharav-Miara, in a letter to the committee, made it clear that any meeting would only take place after the justices weighed in on the petitions that have challenged the committee's authority.
Video: AG Baharav-Miara sworn in // Credit: GPO
The affair deals with the spyware known as Pegasus. The Israeli company NSO has been accused of selling the program to various regimes around the world who then reportedly used it for their own domestic spying against dissidents and various other groups. NSO has long claimed that all exports and transactions were approved by the relevant Israeli authorities and that in no way was it involved in human rights abuses and other potential uses that were not authorized. In Israel, there have been accusations that the program was used by law enforcement without getting a proper warrant to create real-time wiretapping of officials' devices. Police have denied any wrongdoing. An investigation commissioned by then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, which consulted NSO's logs of clients' surveillance targets, found the reports to be unfounded.
Israel Hayom has learned that the attorney general has so far declined every proposed meeting date offered by the committee.
Earlier this month, the committee had invited her to appear before it in its inaugural session. The committee said that she could use the meeting to present her views over the scope of its authority, particularly on whether it could deal with ongoing cases and on the contentious issue of the Pegasus spyware potentially having been used in the investigations into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cases – which have since turned into a full-fledged trial – involved the illicit use of spyware.
Baharav-Miara had previously said that the committee had no authority to investigate the open cases involving Netanyahu, but Justice Minister Yariv Levin went on to establish the investigative body anyway, prompting the legal challenges by former security officials, including former Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman and former Defense Ministry Director-General Amir Eshel.
As indicated in her recent response letter to the committee, Baharav-Miara stated that she would only show up for a meeting of this nature after the Supreme Court rules on the committee. If the committee decides not to proceed with its investigation and waits for the meeting, this could potentially result in a delay of months in the committee's work.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
