2 weeks Ago
This morning (Sunday), the Prime Ministe 's chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, sent a warning letter to journalist Michael Shemesh and media CEO Golan Yochpaz following the publication on Kan News suggesting he is suspected of blackmailing an officer. In the letter, he demands that Shemesh retract his statements and that they be removed from all places where they were published. He must also publish an apology and pay monetary compensation of 100,000 ILS.
Braverman's lawyer, Attorney Hor Ariel Nazri, wrote: "My client is astonished by the publications with you because the things are not true, most severe, and even cross the civil threshold into the realm of real incitement, which grants my client the right to sue even based on the infringement of a statutory duty, as you chose to spread falsehoods and fibs, real incitement during wartime under the guise of journalistic reporting." "The totality of what was said in the publication in general and specifically in the parts where my client is mentioned, brings forth harsh and severe things against my client, which not only rise to the level of defamation from the high existing threshold, and perhaps even a new and despicable threshold, from what is clear to everyone, that it was done maliciously and with intent to harm, alongside the timing in which you chose to publish the things and even without seeking a response before publishing the things, a fact which in itself indicates lack of good faith, once again," adds the lawyer. The lawyer emphasizes that "it is unfortunate for my client that there is an unfounded attempt to attribute to him actions that never were and from which arise severe allegations of wrongful deeds on the part of my client where none exist.
My client strives for full cooperation between the parties to aid in the war aims these days." Earlier, it was reported on Kan News that the senior official in Netanyahu's staff who allegedly held sensitive footage of an officer. Braverman's name later emerged in connection with the case.
It was alleged that people in Netanyahu's office allowed employees in the office to view the sensitive footage. The footage was obtained from security cameras in the Prime Minister's office, which raised "concerns of an attempt to blackmail the officer who worked with the Prime Minister's office and possessed sensitive information." Ynet reported that according to suspicion, there is a connection between this case and other cases being investigated in the Prime Minister's office, which were published in recent days - the minutes of meetings and the secret documents case centered on Eli Feldstein, the spokesperson in the Prime Minister's office who is under arrest.
Braverman responded: "The serious allegation that I am holding footage of any officer or that I tried to blackmail someone - is false, and so is Michael Shemesh's defamatory report. It's a falsehood from beginning to end aimed at harming me and the Prime Minister's office at the height of the war.".
