At the end of December, the Israeli deputies had hastily passed a law, dubbed the “Dery law” by the press, authorizing a person convicted of a crime, but not sentenced to prison, to obtain a ministerial portfolio.
A law which had one objective: to allow Arié Dery to obtain a post of minister.
But the Supreme Court did not taste the trick of the executive.
"The Supreme Court has decided that the appointment of MP Arie Dery as Minister of the Interior and Health cannot be validated," the court said in a statement.
"The Prime Minister must dismiss him," she continues, recalling that Arié Dery, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shass party, announced in early 2022 that he was retiring from political life following his conviction for tax evasion.
This withdrawal was even a condition set by the courts to avoid prison.
Arié Dery already sentenced for corruption in 2003
But he was re-elected in the November legislative elections and appointed Minister of the Interior and Health in the government set up at the end of December by Benjamin Netanyahu, with his ultra-Orthodox and far-right allies.
The deputies had voted at the end of December the “Dery law” because according to the fundamental laws of Israel which serve as the Constitution, an Israeli citizen charged (and a fortiori convicted)
cannot occupy a post of minister.
Arie Dery, 63, was first elected to parliament in 1992 under the banner of Shass, which he led for years and served as a minister in many governments.
In 2000, he was sentenced to three years in prison for corruption and released after serving two-thirds of his sentence.
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