JERUSALEM, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- The leader of a probe clearing Israel's prime minister in a 1997 assassination will join a U.N. inquiry of Israel's May raid of a flotilla, officials say.
Yosef Ciechanover, who headed the 1997 probe that cleared Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of blame in a failed attempt to assassinate Khaled Mashaal, will represent Israel in a U.N. probe of an Israeli military flotilla raid, officials in Israel said Saturday.
Ciechanover is former director general of Israel's Foreign Ministry but now represents Israel in the United Nations, Israeli online news site Ynet reported.
"Ciechanover represents diplomatic freedom, and he is a man of great personal and international caliber as someone who received titles from the U.S. Defense Department and the French Foreign Legion," an Israeli official said following the appointment.
In May Israeli commanders raided a flotilla of ships Israel suspected of smuggling weapons to Gaza. The ships were determined to be carrying humanitarian aid and during the raid nine people aboard the MV Mavi Marmara were killed.
The Israeli military defended the killings, saying activists aboard the ship attacked them.
