"* Every couple is assigned a Kommandant to whom the man turns for advice
and who exercises extreme control over the couple, essentially
dictating how they interact with each other and when they can have relations.
Some are more strict than others. The Kommandants rarely speak to the
wives, who usually turn to their kallah (marriage preparation) teachers
with questions. The Kommandant's word, however, is law. (Takanas - Takunnas)"
Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman to be indicted
Attorney General clears way for indictment of haredi lawmaker Yaakov Litzman in connection with Malka Leifer case, delicatessen case.
Israeli Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) will face charges in connection to two separate investigations, after Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit approved the preliminary indictment.
Mandelblit notified Litzman that he has signed off on the charge sheet; a necessary step for indicting an incumbent minister. A hearing must be held for the final indictment to be formally filed.
The preliminary indictment includes charges of obstruction of justice and breach of trust, and stems from two separate cases.
The first case relates to the disgraced former Australian educator Malka Leifer, who was extradited from Israel to Australia in January to face multiple counts of child sex abuse.
Leifer fled Australia in 2008, moving to Israel, where she was eventually found mentally unfit for extradition, before the case was reopened following the work of a private investigator who found evidence Leifer had faked her mental illness to escape extradition.
Litzman, who served as Deputy Health Minister (serving de facto as Health Minister) and later as Health Minister at the time, is suspected of taking improper steps to help Leifer obtain recommendations from mental health officials that she be deemed unfit to stand trial.
The second case revolves around accusations that as Health Minister, Litzman tried to help a delicatessen owned by a friend avoid forced closure over poor sanitary standards. The matter came to police attention after a pregnant woman who ate at the deli suffered a miscarriage, apparently as a result of a listeria infection in 2015, one of a number of bacterial infections reported at the deli.
“There are two cases which involve Minister Litzman apparently taking advantage of his position and governmental power in order to advance the interests of private individuals,” Mandelblit wrote, “during which he used his government power to back outside interest and against the interests of those he was tasked with serving as Deputy Health Minister.”
