Micha Lindenstrauss

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Micha Lindenstrauss (Hebrew: מיכה לינדנשטראוס) (born: 1937) is an Israeli judge and the current State Comptroller.

Lindenstrauss was born in Nazi Germany and immigrated to the Land of Israel (then the British Mandate of Palestine) when he was two years old, on the eve of World War II. He studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and later became a military prosecutor, and later, judge in a military tribunal.

In 1972, he became a Traffic Court judge, and later, a Lower District Court judge in Haifa, where he lived ever since. In 1999, he was appointed president of the Haifa District Court. Later, he became chair of the Judges Delegation of Israel. He is married and a father to three daughters, one of whom is a judge.

Lindenstrauss' name reached headlines when he acquitted the suspects in the notorious gang rape of a fourteen year-old girl in kibbutz Shimrat, a decision overturned by the Supreme Court. As chair of the Judges Delegation, he became known for his stern opposition to the abolition of the Judges Feedback by the Lawyers Guild of Israel, and helped lead the judges boycott against the Guild incident.

Upon the retirement of State Comptroller, Eliezer Goldberg, Lindenstrauss was the sole contender for the position. He was voted as State Comptroller by the Knesset (with 59 voting for, 29 against), a position he assumed in July 2005.

On May 2006, Lindenstrauss became involved in a heated and highly-publicized dispute with Public Service Commissioner, Shmuel Hollander, who maintained Lindenstrauss' annual Comptroller report was unfairly and personally biased toward him, resulting in legal action. ^[1]