Knesset Legal Adviser Eyal Yinon explained in a letter to MKs that their “parliamentary immunity is not unlimited,” after three lawmakers discussed the “Prisoner X” affair in the plenum, even though there was a gag order on the case. Knesset members who last week in parliament broke the gag order surrounding Ben Zygier’s imprisonment and suicide could be tried if it was a premeditated act, Yinon said Monday. “Freedom of expression is a basic right in Israel, but like every other basic right, it is not total,” he said.
MKs Dov Khenin (Hadash), Zahava Gal-on (Meretz) and Ahmad Tibi (Ra’am Ta’al) interrupted a routine parliamentary meeting last Tuesday in order to pose questions about the top-secret detention of a Mossad agent, later identified as Ben Zygier, who was the subject of an Australian investigative TV report. The MKs exercised their parliamentary immunity in order to level the questions at outgoing Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman without fear of prosecution.
The “Prisoner X” case on the Australian press
They were swiftly rebuked by extreme right wing MKs, the former foreign minister Ivette “Avigdor” Liberman and Likud-Beytenu Miri Regev, herself a former chief censor, who said they had “abused” their parliamentary rights and “harmed Israel’s national security.”
Yinon wrote in his legal opinion published Monday that “premeditation of statements constitutes a crime unprotected by [parliamentary] immunity, and permits in principle trying an MK for it, like anybody else.” He added that MKs could be investigated and tried for planning and publishing secret materials in any manner.
MK Khenin reacted to Yinon’s legal opinion saying would be “a slippery and dangerous slope.” MK Tibi said he was shocked Yinon’s legal opinion. He said he acted last week according to his fundamental immunity, and filled his Knesset role and didn’t violate any laws. “I safeguarded the values of freedom, democracy and the fundamental rights of citizens,” Tibi said.
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