Deputy State Attorney Asserts No Plea Deal Without Moral Turpitude Clause
In recent news, Shlomo Lemberger, the Deputy State Attorney in the State of Israel made it very clear that he would not support any plea agreement with the former Prime Minister of the country, Benjamin Netanyahu, which did not include a clause for moral turpitude. While talking at a conference of the Israel Bar Association, he added that he personally wanted to ensure that any agreement signed by the opposition leader would effectively put an end to his career in the public office. Lemberger stated that in his opinion, it would be impossible to come up with a deal that did not include some sort of a clause preventing the former Prime Minister from being in the government in the future.
This is because he believes that the several public corruption crimes that Netanyahu has been accused of are too severe to ignore. The Deputy State Attorney, however, is not alone in this decision. There are numerous other voices, just as senior as his, who believe that any plea deal offered to the opposition leader should not be without a clause for moral turpitude. On the other hand, Lemberger is not the attorney charged with the responsibility to deal with the cases that Netanyahu is fighting. The key voice in all corruption cases related to the former Prime Minister is Avichai Mandelblit, the Attorney General of the Jewish state.
The second most important voice in the matter is Amit Aisman, the State Attorney. Brokering the deal from the opposition leader’s side are his lawyers, Liat Ben Ari, and Yehudit Tirosh. The latter has chosen to take the reins on Case 4000. Despite not being the key voice in the cases against Netanyahu, the Deputy State Attorney had no problem expressing his views in public. People believe that this was only possible after Lemberger received a silent nod from the people above him. However, his views are believed to represent the opinion of the majority of the prosecution, given that the Netanyahu cases are a matter of great importance.
There has been considerable excitement related to the potential plea agreement on the table ever since it surfaced last week. However, the two parties have not yet come to a compromise, and it is not clear whether the former Prime Minister will decide to end his career in the public office and sign the deal. Moreover, Netanyahu has not yet even agreed to let the prosecution request this in front of the court. The most recent prediction in regard to the plea deal are that until and unless the opposition leader sits down with the prosecution to talk about this issue, the agreement may be a lost cause.
The tenure for the Attorney General of the country is about to come to an end before the 1st of February, which means that the time to cut a deal and make further negotiations is about to run out for the former Prime Minister. On the other hand, people believe that even if this happens, there is little chance of the deal going through, given the gaps that exist in the clauses of the arrangement.
