Today, the Jerusalem District Court continued the cross-examination of Chief Investigator Nir Hefetz in the Netanyahu trial. Adv. Boaz Ben-Tzur, the former prime minister’s defense attorney, confronted the senior investigator documenting Hefetz’s interrogations and his testimony in court that improper means of pressure were used, including shouting, threats, using Hefetz’s family and the effect of the interrogation on them. Its specifications are under confidentiality.
Ben-Zur presented Schwartz with an investigation in which the investigator Yaniv Peleg slammed the object that “in the next few hours a bomb is going to land on you that will shock your world … until now I have not lied to you, the bomb you are about to hijack, believe me it will fundamentally shock your world. I do not think you take into account Our knowledge, what we are capable of doing. “
Schwartz replied that this was not what the investigator Peleg meant, and that he might be referring to contacts with Shlomo Pilber to sign a state witness agreement. Ben-Zur showed that the meeting with the relative took place the day after this statement.
Asked about Peleg’s role and powers, Schwartz replied that “Yaniv is not the chief investigator and is unlikely to receive instructions on what to interrogate Nir.
Adv. Ben Tzur: The object was given a sense that its weaknesses were known
During the cross-examination it emerged that the police had been following an object before he was arrested. “Let’s say we were with you in the days before your arrest, know where you were the night before I arrested you, the detectives have known you for weeks” the object was said in the interrogation. Ben-Zur slapped Schwartz because the object was given the feeling that his weaknesses were known. Schwartz replied that this was Hefetz’s subjective feeling – “tell him to know and know to give him a sense of the power of the unit.” “You know that illegal pressure must not be exerted to cause a person to violate his legal right,” Ben-Zur and Schwartz confirmed.
During the hearing, an investigation was presented in which investigator Peleg says to Hefetz: “There is a situation where your children will not want to be in touch with you … because you maintain the right to remain silent.
Schwartz argued that in the investigation they reflected to the object the picture that if he continued to adhere to his legal right (to remain silent), it “might strengthen the evidence against him and harm him.” Schwartz replied that he did not threaten but used the influence on Hefetz’s family members to explain to him that the continued silence was destructive for him and he could go to jail.
Adv. Ben Tzur: Is it permissible to threaten an interrogee that his family will be destroyed if he does not give a version?
Schwartz: No threat.
Adv. Ben Tzur: I asked Clalit.
Schwartz: Threatening is forbidden. But there is a situation reflection if he continues not to cooperate.
Summoning Hefetz’s wife for questioning
In his testimony, Hefetz testified that some of the harsh means of interrogation used against him were summoning his wife for interrogation, even though she had no involvement or knowledge about the interrogation. He saw it as a step designed to break him emotionally.
Nir Hefetz / Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Ben-Zur confronted Schwartz with the claim that an attempt was made to get the object to cooperate while improperly using his wife. “Agree with me that it is wrong to summon a person for questioning to do an exercise for a relative,” Ben-Zur said. Schwartz confirmed that when there is no purpose to an investigation, summoning a woman is improper. He also replied that the head of the investigation team had decided to summon the woman.
Schwartz confirmed that Hefetz’s wife “did not have a specific connection, could have been exposed to his conversations or told her things that happened in the matter we investigated. In addition, a document was seized at the house where she lives and had to be asked.” When Ben-Zur slapped Schwartz that the women of salvation, no further witnesses were summoned Schwartz replied that he did not know.
Ben-Zur slammed Schwartz that the interrogation exercise conducted with the relative, whose details are prohibited from publication, was in order to put pressure on an object. Schwartz replied that he did not write the questions to an acquaintance, and that the initiative belonged to the head of the investigation team, adding: “There was no intention to threaten an object in personal matters that would be revealed if he did not cooperate,” Schwartz replied.
Hefetz described the means used in the investigation as draconian, disproportionate, and that “unequivocal messages of threats” were conveyed. An object was heard in Hefetz’s testimony in which Schwartz was heard shouting – “Where do you think you are? ‘Do you have a family? They are important to you. Do not do it for you but for your family.’
Yesterday, Schwartz testified that Hefetz was silent and an attempt was made to bring him a version helicopter. “In an attempt to convince him yes to accept a version, I explain to him that it casts a shadow on the court’s perspective on that suspect, that the consequences for him will be devastating. And if he goes to jail he will not see the family and children he will not see. The meanings in terms of his silence. “
Investigator Schwartz’s cross-examination will continue tomorrow. After him, researcher Yaniv Peleg is expected to testify.
*** Presumption of innocence: It should be emphasized that even after the indictment was filed against them, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Shaul and Iris Elowitz and Noni Mozes deny what was attributed to them, were not convicted of an offense, and have the presumption of innocence.