Yekaterina Belova,
Based on materials of the Israeli media.

Israeli media report that on 6 May 2008 the Israeli Supreme Court (the Bagatz) gave the Internal Affairs Ministry 60 days to tell Mikhail Chernoi whether he will continue to be considered a citizen of Israel and return his foreign travel passport to him.

The background to this story is as follows. Last December Mr. Chernoi filed a request with the Supreme Court to order the Israeli Internal Affairs Minister to return to him his foreign travel passport, which they had taken from him 8 years ago. Besides the return of the passport, Chernoi also demanded that the ministry acknowledge the legality of his citizenship, which he obtained in 1994 pursuant to the law of return.

In this suit, Chernoi accused the state of unprecedented bureaucratic delay. Since 1998, when his passport was taken, the helm of the ministry changed hands 9 times, and none of the ministers even began to work on the Chernoi case.

Mikhail Chernoi received Israeli citizenship in 1994. Ten years later, Internal Affairs Minister Avraam Poraz decided to revoke Chernoi’s citizenship on the basis that it was obtained through fraud, since Chernoi had not declared his criminal past.

The issue will be settled on 5 July. A decision on Mikhail Chernoi’s passport will be made. But what sort of decision? Will Mikhail Semyonovich add a new passport to his collection? If not, where will the first Russian production-worker-turned-oligarch go? To Tashkent, where he grew up? Or London, where his new friend Boris Berezovsky lives? Incidentally, there aren’t many countries that will accept Chernoi today…

The decision of the Bagatz can be seen here.

Decree of the Supreme Court (Bagatz) No. 10730/07.

Handed down by Deputy Chairman of the Court E. Rivlina, as well as Judges S. Jubran and I. Danziger.
The plaintiff, Mikhail Chernoi versus the defendant, the Internal Affairs Minister.
The suit concerns the handing down of a conditional ruling.
The plaintiff’s interests were represented by the lawyers Yaakov Vainrot, Yaron Kostelits, Yaakov Segal and Yevgeny Trespov.
The defendant’s interests were represented by lawyer Yohi Gnesin.

THE DECISION:

The events that took place are disturbing. One feels that the check being conducted by the defendants is taking longer than necessary.
However, there is reason to hope that the current stage of the check is the last one. Therefore it would seem expedient to give the defendants the opportunity to make a decision on the plaintiff’s case within a reasonable time frame.
Taking this into account, the court gives the defendants 60 days to submit an updated fact sheet on this case so that we can decide how to proceed further.
Handed down on Sunday, 6 May 2008

(Judges’ signatures)