Deri accuses prosecutors of mafia tactics after police leak

Leaked recordings of Israel Police Investigations and Intelligence Division chief Superintendent Boaz Blatt, aired Sunday night on Channel 12 by correspondent Amit Segal, have set off a political firestorm. In the recordings, Blatt launches a sharp attack on the law enforcement system, particularly the State Attorney's Office and the Police Internal Investigations Department (Machash), with accusations never before heard at such intensity from within the system itself.

Blatt, who has held his post for about two years and oversees all police investigations, leveled serious charges against the prosecution. "I don't like it when the police are used as a tool," he is heard saying in the recording. "There are quite a few incidents here where any reasonable person understands these are drawer files, pressure levers applied to people. They put them in a drawer, do nothing with them for a year, and after a year they pull them out and do supplementary investigation."

The investigations chief claimed the same tools are used against police officers themselves through Machash. "They use the same tools on police officers through Machash," he said. "You crossed a line somewhere? All it takes is to invite you now to the thinking chair."

Police Investigations and Intelligence Division chief Superintendent Boaz Blatt (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

In the recordings, Blatt raised additional claims about the prosecution's handling of crime in the Arab sector. "Files that end up sitting there and they don't do anything with them, at some point someone needs to come and say hello, what's going on, I'm talking to you about sector files, things of that sort," he said.

Blatt also addressed police officers' fear of confronting crime organizations in the Arab sector. "In the past they would check Abu Latif 20 times a year, today you'll see they don't check him even once," he claimed. "There are incidents where an officer passes by and turns his gaze to the other side."

In further criticism, Blatt claimed that "today the State Attorney's Office in Israel is not managed. It is managed only in one niche called public corruption, and all the other matters are as if they don't concern them."

Deri: "This is what we have known for decades"

The first to respond forcefully to the shocking findings was Shas chairman Rav Aryeh Deri, who knows the system up close and has warned for decades against this pattern of operation.

"The shocking recordings expose to the public what we in Shas have known for decades: how senior prosecutors, led by Dorit Beinisch and Shai Nitzan, conducted themselves with mafia-like and cruel methods toward elected officials, and used the weapon of investigations and criminal files as a means of extortion and elimination of political rivals," he attacked sharply.

"This is the core of the malignant corruption in Israel's civil service system. The same criminal conduct is being continued today by the outgoing Attorney General Miara and the State Attorney. The Israeli public must wake up and understand: this dangerous plague must be eradicated!"

The exposure sent shockwaves through the entire political arena. Likud officials said the quotes "should keep every citizen awake at night" and compared the methods to dark regimes. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich pointed to "the depth of the rot" that leaves no choice but to carry out a root fix in the justice system.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir charged that "the State Attorney's Office has become a crime organization and Mahash a criminal militia."

On behalf of Superintendent Boaz Blatt, it was stated that "the remarks were taken out of context" and that they were legitimate substantive criticism made in closed forums. The State Attorney's Office responded that the claims are rejected entirely and that its decisions are made solely on professional and evidentiary considerations.

The exposure, coming just days before the opening of the 26th Knesset, gives tremendous tailwind to demands by right-wing parties and chareidi factions to carry out comprehensive reform in the enforcement and justice systems.