http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?id=62577&mador=1&datee=12/02/99
Thursday, December 2, 1999
Secret Irangate paper found in home of Nimrodi worker
By Nicole Krau and Zvi Harel
The private investigator suspected of being a
potential hit man for Ma'ariv publisher Ofer Nimrodi
was yesterday ordered remanded in custody for five
more days on suspicion of "being in possession of
secret information without authorization."
A police search of Oded Ben Dov's home about ten
days ago turned up a document which reportedly
contains material related to the so-called
"Irangate" affair of the mid-1980's. The typewritten
document of a few dozen pages, in Hebrew, was
examined by various bodies, who determined that only
authorized security personnel were permitted to have
access to it.
It is now possible that Ofer Nimrodi's father,
Ya'akov Nimrodi, a former military attache in Iran
during the period of the Shah and an arms dealer,
may be summoned for questioning by the police. (See
related article, page 2)
Judge Yeshayahu Schneller of the Petah Tikva
Magistrate's Court, who ordered Ben Dov remanded for
the fifth time, noted that even though the new
suspicion is entirely different from the previous
ones, it has "an indirect connection to the object
of the previous remand requests."
The Irangate affair of 1984-1988 involved covert
sales of U.S. arms to Iran via Israel, despite an
embargo on such transactions imposed by President
Jimmy Carter. Part of the money paid by the Iranians
was transferred - in contravention of Congressional
directives - to the Contras in Nicaragua.
The investigation of Ben Dov for allegedly being
contracted to liquidate Ya'akov Tzur - the state's
witness in the wiretapping trial against Ofer
Nimrodi, for which Nimrodi eventually served time in
prison - was already completed. If not for the newly
uncovered document, he would have been released
yesterday.
Ben Dov told the police that he received the
document from overseas by mail some years ago, from
one of his clients whose name he cannot recall. Nor
did he say why the document had been sent to him. He
faces a possible charge of "aggravated espionage."
In another development, the police are investigating
a suspicion that some of the tapes they recently
received from Ofer Nimrodi's lawyers supporting
their complaint that Nimrodiwas being blackmailed
were doctored and partially erased, Ha'aretz learned
yesterday from a police source who is knowledgeable
of the probe.
Nimrodi's legal team sent the head of the
Investigations Branch, Police Major General Yossi
Sidbon, a large number of documents and recordings
which they say prove that Nimrodi was blackmailed
from the beginning of the year by Rafi Pridan and
Yigal Tam, the two state's witnesses in the case,
and by emissaries they used.
Nimrodi is being held in custody while the police
continue to investigate if he conspired to have
Pridan murdered.
Yesterday, Nimrodi's chief counsel, Dan Avi-Yitzhak,
appealed his client's current nine-day remand to the
Tel Aviv District Court. Avi-Yitzhak argued that
Nimrodi was unlawfully deprived of his basic
constitutional right to be properly represented by a
lawyer.
Attorney Shuki Stein, one of Nimrodi's lawyers,
stated several weeks ago in a press conference that
Nimrodi told him early this year that Pridan was
trying to extort money.
Stein said all contacts with the would-be
blackmailers were documented by him and others.
Nimrodi did not file a complaint about being
blackmailed.
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