Ministers to Discuss Law Exempting PM From Criminal Inquiry

YERUSHALAYIM
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

The Ministerial Law Committee on Sunday will discuss a law that would exempt a sitting prime minister from police criminal inquiries. The law, sponsored by Likud MK David Amsalem, is said to have wide support in the coalition, although State Attorney Avichai Mandelblit opposes it.

The law would not apply to the current cases against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, but it would prevent police from opening a new investigation against him. In the case of a prime minister who is suspected of wrongdoing, it would be up to the Knesset to boot him out of office and vote in a new prime minister.

The law would be accompanied by a companion rule – limiting the term a single prime minister could serve to eight years. The law was floated several months ago by Amsalem, but was not brought up for legislation, as the coalition was said to be against it. However, with the recent tension between Netanyahu and police over leaks regarding the investigations against him, Amsalem told Channel One that he believes there is a very good chance that the vote will pass both the committee and the Knesset.

“There is an army that has formed in this country to boot the prime minister out of office,” Amsalem said. “It is an obsession, similar to how they deploy the army in third-world countries. For the past 20 years every prime minister has been investigated, and it has shut the state down. The current situation is intolerable. Those who wish to change the leadership of the country must do it at the voting booth, not via the police.” In a statement Friday, Mandelblit said that he opposed the law in the past, and he still opposed it.

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