Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has decided to accept the recommendations of police and Jerusalem Prosecutor’s Office investigators and is likely to move ahead with criminal indictments against former Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger. Weinstein will grant Rabbi Metzger a hearing to permit him to explain why an indictment should not be filed. However, a multicount criminal indictment is all but certain at this stage.
Rabbi Metzger faces numerous charges involving white collar crimes including tax evasion, accepting bribes, money laundering and more. The rav stands accused of taking 10 million shekels in bribes, of which he pocketed 7 million.
However, the state’s case involves wiretaps and other means used to gather evidence against the rabbi. Back in 2013 Rabbi Metzger blamed all illegal activities on his driver, who as a result is likely to testify against him as the chief state witness.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
We could have had harav Yaakov Ariel as Chief Rabbi but UTJ fought tooth and nail to appoint the soon-to-be-indicted gentleman instead. Thank you UTJ. Way to go.
What about the boys?
To #1: Do I need to remind you what “flavor” yarmulke (or rather “kippa”) is under the the rav’s hat? Anyway, the charges are of misdeeds committed after he was elected Chief Rabbi, not before. So, UTJ could not have known what the future would bring. In any case, he’s not even been indicted yet, but the media have already found him guilty and sentenced him. As often happens, much of the “evidence” is likely to be disqualified because it was was illegally obtained. Not that even one of the charges is particularly encouraging, but it may turn out to be a more limited indictment than presently being publicized.
#1
Metzger probably was a bad mistake (with his impeccable Dati Leumi background),
but indictments are always publicly leeked when possibly conducive to impact elections
Am considering running for a Chief Rabbinate
Already awaiting my police investigation and indictment
Plain repulsive, that we should be discussing alleged (or even “proven”) criminal acts by Yidden on a page where there is an advertisement for seforim containing Torah thoughts of the Holy Chofetz Chaim. YWN, are you going to tell us that your poskim permitted such news to be posted? Would you mind revealing, even if not their identity, at least what their heter is?