The Public Complaints Commission on State Prosecutors (NataM) recently issued a series of decisions highlighting significant deficiencies in the conduct of Israel's prosecution and state attorney offices. The commission's findings, reported by NWS on August 10, 2026, raise concerns regarding negligence in criminal case management, sensitive information security, and public service integrity.
A central case involved a minor assault file where the victim's father filed a complaint alleging negligence by the police prosecution. The Commissioner determined that a prosecutorial oversight led to the dismissal of the indictment after the defendant could not be located. Furthermore, even after the defendant returned to Israel, the criminal proceedings were not resumed for over a year due to a systemic error. The Commissioner described this as a grave failure, noting that the defendant benefited from the situation while the legal proceedings remained pending indefinitely.
Simultaneously, a sensitive matter regarding information security within the State Attorney's Office was exposed. A complaint indicated that a former intern at the District Attorney's office had transferred confidential, internal, and sensitive documents from criminal files to a third party via a portable storage device. Following an inquiry, the Commissioner noted that the State Attorney's Office acted proactively and reasonably to halt the dissemination, purge the materials, and prevent future recurrences, thus deeming their handling of the matter reasonable.
Another case discussed by the Commission involved municipal integrity. A municipal auditor filed a complaint against a prosecutor who handled a request to cancel a fine imposed on a business owned by a relative. The prosecutor opted to convert the fine into a warning. The Commissioner ruled that this conduct constituted a clear conflict of interest and, even in cases of distant kinship, the prosecutor should have recused herself and transferred the file to another authorized official. This complaint was upheld as justified.