The trial of Ronal Fisher and former Tel Aviv District Attorney Ruth David, which has been going on for 7 years, is expected to be temporarily halted again. The prosecutor’s office is expected to inform Judge Moshe Sobel of the Jerusalem District Court this morning (Thursday) that it accepts the request of Fisher’s defense attorneys to complete an investigation in the case. This follows a new allegation that surfaced in recent months, according to which the former deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Moshe Saada, made verbal promises to the queen, outside of the written agreement. As part of the completion of the investigation, restaurant testimony will be collected.
■ The Ronal Fisher case: 7 years after the indictment was filed, state witness Eran Malka returned to the witness stand
■ State witness and lawyer: Ronel Fischer’s trial gets complicated because of a new claim
■ Stuck for seven years: what is delaying the Ronal Fischer trial?
Malka testified several years ago in a trial and did not claim that favors were promised outside of the agreement. After he was released from prison on early release in 2019, the Bar Association returned his law license to him. A year later, the bar filed a request to permanently revoke his law practice license following the prosecution’s appeal to it.
As part of the disciplinary procedure, Malka claimed for the first time that Saada assured him that the state would not object to his early release (as it did later), and that it would not seek to revoke his law license. Last week, Malka testified in the criminal proceedings and said: “Moshe Saada said in my ears: My word. I can’t write that (in the state witness agreement – N.S.)”.
Saada denies these things. According to him, “there is a written and signed agreement and he was represented by a lawyer.” He testified in the disciplinary proceedings at the Bar Association and claimed that Malka was lying.
The defense attorneys: the favors were hidden from the court
Fisher’s lawyers, Eli Perry, Moshe Weiss and Avi Hami, requested that the prosecution collect testimonies from people who remembered Malka’s new testimony. The main one is Moshe Saada, along with other officials who met with Malka while he was detained. The prosecutor’s office deliberated and decided that there was room to investigate the new allegations in order to bring the full picture before the court.
The defense attorneys claim that the favors were hidden from the court, and Malka’s testimony in the trial was given under the desire to please the prosecution, so that they would keep the promises made by Saada (according to him). In his testimony, Malka could not say what he thought would happen if Saada left his position and who would fulfill the promises, as indeed happened. In addition, the state’s witness testified that he did not know if there were other officials who confirmed the alleged promises.
Malka’s new claim puts the prosecutor’s office in a problematic situation, in which they claim that the state witness on whom they will seek to rely on the rest of the evidence, is lying on a certain point. If Malka’s claim is accepted, it will help the defense, which will claim that Malka tried to please the prosecution along the way, when all the promises were hidden.
*** The presumption of innocence: Eran Malka, Ruth David, Shai Bars and Yair Biton were not convicted, and they have the presumption of innocence.