Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said on Monday that the High Court of Justice should freeze the implementation of a controversial law passed by the coalition in June giving the justice minister control over the Department for Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) until the court can make a final ruling on the measure.

In the attorney general’s response to High Court petitions against the law, she argued that the legislation politicizes law enforcement and would therefore severely and immediately endanger civil rights in the country. This justified an interim court order freezing implementation, and the ultimate annulment of the law as unconstitutional, Baharav-Miara asserted.

The law passed by the coalition had long been sought by advocates on the right who claimed there was a conflict of interest in DIPI being subordinate to the State Attorney’s Office, as it was prior to the new law, due to that agency’s close cooperation with the police.

Those critics, such as Likud MK and former DIPI deputy head Moshe Saada, who introduced the law, alleged that as a result, DIPI had an institutional bias against specific targets associated with the political right.

Critics of the bill, including professionals in the Justice Ministry, the legal adviser to the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee — where the law was drawn up — and the opposition, all argued that the changes to DIPI’s structure, including the new authorities it grants the justice minister, will compromise the department’s independence, politicize it, and politicize criminal probes of the........

© The Times of Israel