Criminal Case (Jerusalem) 28759-05-15 State of Israel v. Eran Malka - part 109

Understanding the matter in this manner is consistent with the duties imposed on the prosecution by virtue of the State Attorney's directive regarding the preparation of a plea bargain (No. 8.1).  Section 11 of the directive states that "an arrangement to which the State Attorney's Office is a party must be prepared in writing and signed by the defendant and his counsel," and Section 12 adds that "in the record sheet in the State Attorney's file, the prosecutor shall record the detailed reasoning for the plea bargain."  It was also determined (in paragraph 15 of the directive) that "a plea bargain that involves special public sensitivity...  if because this is a case that has received widespread public attention" – and there is no dispute that the proceeding in question falls within the scope of this provision – "requires the written approval of the State Attorney or the Attorney General.  The reasons for the decision will be detailed in the State Attorney's Office file and, if necessary, will be submitted to the court."  In our case, the accuser presented a single plea bargain (which is also a state witness agreement) signed by Malka and his counsel.  No additional written plea bargain was presented, and no record was found in the State Attorney's file regarding the reasoning for the settlement, as well as a written confirmation by the State Attorney or the Attorney General with the reasons for the decision.  After all, it is sufficient that one of these documents was present, so that the prosecution did not need to "try to trace the reasons that led to the decision" (as stated in its statement of March 21, 2018) and to rely on an examination of the email box of the Director of the Department for the Investigation of Police after he finished his position (statements of the accuser's counsel at the hearing of March 19, 2018, p. 3293) or an attempt to locate correspondence on the mobile phones of the prosecution's representatives and defense attorneys (her statements at the hearing of November 29, 2018, pp. 6758-6759).