Retired Israel Police Chief Superintendent Tzachi Havkin was named on Sunday as the senior police officer arrested in September, alongside several other suspects, in a widening corruption investigation centered on the Lahav 433 National Crime Unit, on suspicion of leaking sensitive police information to the criminal organization headed by the Mosli family.
The publication of Havkin’s identity was permitted following requests by major Israeli media outlets, including Walla, Channel 13, News1, and Haaretz, after months under a sweeping gag order.
According to investigators, the affair concerns alleged illicit ties between past and present Lahav 433 officers and organized crime figures. Havkin, a former senior investigator in the unit and now a practicing attorney, is suspected of passing internal police information to the Mosli crime group, allegedly in exchange for bribes. The suspected offenses include accepting and offering bribes, conspiracy to commit a felony, and obstruction of justice.
The Mosli organization, led by brothers Eli, Nissim, and Yossi Mosli, has long been linked to associates of the notorious Abergil crime family.
Havkin was held in custody for 12 days before being released. Shortly thereafter, he began testifying as a defense witness in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s criminal trial. His testimony, which the defense considers significant, is currently ongoing.
Havkin is represented by attorney Dubi Shertzer, a former senior official in the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigation Department, which investigates allegations of police misconduct. Both Havkin and Shertzer have appeared as defense witnesses in Netanyahu’s trial.
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court initially barred publication of Havkin’s name due to his current occupation as a lawyer. In late November, however, Magistrate’s Court Judge Gad Ehrenberg ruled that the gag order should be lifted, citing the strengthening of the suspicions since Havkin’s arrest and the public significance of his testimony in the Netanyahu trial.
That ruling was upheld last week by Jerusalem District Court Judge Nimrod Flax, who rejected Havkin’s appeal, finding that he had failed to show publication would cause him exceptional harm, a prerequisite for maintaining a publication ban.
“There is a significant and exceptional public interest in publishing the appellant’s name,” Flax wrote, pointing to the fact that Havkin is testifying publicly while sharply criticizing the conduct of law enforcement authorities. “In these circumstances, the public has the right to know that a witness appearing in the public arena and criticizing police actions is himself under investigation on suspicion of serious offenses.”
Flax added that Havkin “cannot hold the stick at both ends” – publicly criticizing the police while seeking to conceal that he is a suspect in a criminal investigation – and stressed that transparency regarding figures involved in public legal proceedings is essential to democratic integrity and public trust in the justice system.
Havkin a key suspect in Lahav 433 corruption probe
According to Walla, Havkin is considered the central suspect in what has been described as a serious corruption affair within Lahav 433, involving a coordinated chain of former and serving police officers suspected of cooperating with criminal elements.
Channel 13 reported that the Police Internal Department raided Havkin’s law office in September and arrested five suspects in total, including two additional police officers and Eli Mosli himself. Investigators suspect the group leaked sensitive police information to the Mosli organization in exchange for money and other benefits.
Channel 13 further reported that a well-known businessman, whose name remains under a publication ban, is being investigated on suspicion of bribery and money laundering in connection with the affair, including allegations that funds were transferred both to police officers and to members of the Mosli crime group in order to obtain information from law enforcement.
Investigators are also examining whether Mosli associates attempted to extort the businessman using the leaked information.
Separately, Channel 13 noted that in February last year, an indictment was filed against seven members of the rival Hiyya crime group accused of attempting to assassinate Mosli using a four-kilogram explosive device placed beneath his armored vehicle.
During his testimony in Netanyahu’s trial, Havkin – who was involved in investigative work related to Case 4000 – alleged serious flaws in the conduct of the probes against the prime minister. He testified that investigative summaries omitted material that could have undermined the bribery theory, that key witnesses were not confronted with contradictory evidence, and that investigators exerted improper pressure on potential state witnesses.
Havkin has denied all allegations against him. In a statement issued on his behalf, he said he categorically rejects the suspicions and maintains that any information he shared was publicly available and not obtained during his police service.