Police pulled back the curtain Tuesday on a covert probe into three senior officials in the rabbinical court system, one of whom is reportedly a former chief rabbi of Israel.
Investigators believe the three suspects “exploited their senior positions on the rabbinical courts and their roles in order to extort another senior official, with the aim of advancing personal interests,” police said in a statement.
They are suspected of committing extortion through threats, bribery, fraud and breach of trust in order to exert pressure on a judge who serves on one of the system’s 12 regional courts.
The investigation was launched after the judge who was allegedly blackmailed filed a police complaint, claiming he was being pressured with threats to change his rulings on matters of land endowments, Hebrew outlets reported. One of the suspects allegedly extorted the complainant by threatening not to promote him should he not comply with their demands.
Rabbinical courts, which are part of Israel’s judiciary, handle legal matters relating to divorce, wills, inheritances and conversions. They also administer over a thousand plots of land known as endowments, which usually serve as religious schools, synagogues or cemeteries.
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According to the Ynet news outlet, a former chief rabbi was interrogated on suspicion of blackmail, and on the previous day his close associate, a judge on the Great Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem, was summoned for questioning under caution.
Lawyers for the former chief rabbi under probe called the allegations against their client unfounded, claiming the entire case was based on hearsay from the complainant.
“The court, which examined the entire investigation file in depth, determined that the evidentiary basis is thin, and that the entire case ‘hangs on a thread’ as it defined it,” said Amit Hadad and Eli Perry to Ynet.
The probe was overseen by the National Fraud Investigation Unit in the Lahav 433’s major crimes unit, whose chief is currently under investigation himself for breach of trust and abuse of authority.
Police transferred the investigation file to the State Attorney’s Office, which will review the case and decide whether to file charges against the three officials.
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