Report: Mandelblit Won’t Reopen Case 3000 Investigation

Despite pressure on him to do so, State Attorney Avichai Mandelblit will not reopen his investigation into Case 3000, also known as the Submarine Affair, Yisrael Hayom reported.

Blue and White party candidates have in recent days sent many messages to Mandelblit demanding that the case be reopened and that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s role in the affair be re-examined.

Mandelblit wrapped up his investigation in Case 3000 months ago, concluding that Netanyahu was not involved in influence peddling in the sale of submarines by the German company ThyssenKrupp to Israel. Interest in the case was revived after state witness Miki Ganor last week recanted his testimony, that he had bribed several officials to agree to the purchase. Ganor was one of six people accused of receiving bribes and other benefits in order to execute a sale of submarines by ThyssenKrupp to the Israel Navy.

Part of Ganor’s testimony involved allegations that Netanyahu gave his consent to the sale of advanced submarines by ThyssenKrupp to Egypt, and that the Prime Minister had misled investigators by telling them that he had shared with Mandelblit information on why the sale was necessary – even though he was unwilling to tell them, because it was a “state secret.” Blue and White candidates have in recent days accused Netanyahu of a coverup, and demanded that Mandelblit reopen the investigation to determine what role, if any, Netanyahu had in the arrangements for the purchases by Israel and Egypt.

But in response to a letter by the Movement for Quality Government, Mandelblit said that Netanyahu had been accurate in what he told investigators. “The investigation into Case 3000 was conducted in a thorough manner by top legal, security and police officials. In interviews, the Prime Minister answered questions that were posed to him, including the background of the sale of submarines by Germany to Egypt, explaining that he could not reveal why he consented to the sale due to a sensitive state secret. He stressed that although he could not reveal the secret to his interviewers, he was prepared to do so before the State Attorney and State Prosecutor, if needed,” Mandelblit wrote.

At no time was the State Attorney exposed to the secret information,” he wrote. The “state secret” was not relevant to the investigation at the time, Mandelblit wrote, and nothing had changed in that vein, so there was no need to reopen the investigation. “