Did Haim Ramon arrange for his victim to be stalked?
Haim Ramon, the former Labor MK and now Kadima minister who'd originally been convicted of sexual harrassment, then was let off on a misdemeanor, may have had a private investigator harass his victim, though it was his former brother-in-law who did the hiring:
Police at the national headquarters said Tuesday evening that due to a petition made by complainant "H," the plaintiff in Vice Premier Haim Ramon's recent sexual harassment trial, police met with officials from the State Attorney's Office to discuss suspicions that H had been harassed following the trial. H's legal counsel had addressed their concerns to representatives of the State Attorney's Office, which reviewed the allegations and passed the information on to the police.At this moment, they're not trying to bring Ramon into this. But that doesn't mean he couldn't have some kind of involvement in it. If anything, it certainly does signal that another scandal is on the horizon for Ehud Olmert's government.
On Tuesday, Police Intelligence and Investigation Division head Cmdr. Yochanan Danino met with State Attorney Eran Shendar to discuss the matter. Parallel to the meeting, police confirmed the now overt investigation.
In the course of the probe, detectives from the national fraud squad carried out searches in the offices of private detective agency Weizman Ya'ar, as well as in lead suspects' houses.
Detectives said that from the investigation material gathered thus far, they believe that private investigators had been hired, possibly by Ramon's ex-brother-in-law to gather evidence that would damage the credibility of H.
The investigation uncovered suspicions that the detective agency had sent a female undercover investigator to befriend H and create the false impression that they would give her a job. Representatives of the agency are believed to have questioned former acquaintances of H, and to have recorded conversations in which H was a participant.
Ramon's former brother-in-law was questioned by police late Tuesday.
The suspects from the detective agency were all released on bail following their arrest and questioning. Police officers at national headquarters said they expected that the investigation would be concluded in the coming days and that the entire body of information on the case would then be handed over to the State Attorney's Office, where it would be decided whether or not to file indictments.
Labels: Israel, political corruption
