Supreme Court Judge Ayala Procaccia has dismissed a request by the lawyers for Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) president and CEO Galia Maor to postpone the date for filing their statements of defense to next Tuesday, even though all the other respondents to the petition filed by Ometz - Citizens for Proper Administration, Judicial and Social Justice agreed to the postponement. The other respondents are the Bank of Israel, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice, and the appointment committees.
At the same time, Judge Procaccia consolidated the two petitions - one by Ometz and the other by Movement for Quality Government in Israel - filed with the High Court of Justice against Maor's nomination to the chairmanship of Bank Leumi. Judge Procaccia therefore agreed to postpone the filing of the respondents' statements of defense from today to Sunday. The judge said that, shortly after the respondents' statements of defense are received, the court date for the hearing would be set.
Maor's attorneys, Adv. David Libai and Adv. Zvi Agmon, asked for a postponement due to overseas travel.
The Ministry of Justice has already written its statement of defense. Sources inform ''Globes'' that Deputy Attorney General for economics and fiscal affairs Avi Licht and Supervisor for High Court of Justice Petitions at State Prosecutor Anar Helman wrote a very detailed response, which was sent today to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein. So far as is known, the response conforms to the opinion sent two weeks ago to Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz, which stated that Maor could not be appointed as a director of Bank Leumi until after a two-year cooling-off period, as stipulated by the banking appointments law.
It is not yet known whether Bank of Israel's statement of response will support the state's position, or if it will give an independent position that might go against the state's position. When Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer returns today from a conference of central bankers in Sydney, discussions will resume on formulating a uniform statement of defense that will be filed on Sunday.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 10, 2010
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