Benjamin Netanyahu to be investigated for bribery, fraud

TEL AVIV: Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has ordered a full criminal probe into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over two separate cases involving bribery and fraud, local media reported. One of the cases was reported to have emerged newly.

The Prime Minister was expected to be called in by police for questioning in the coming days, the Times of Israel reports, adding that he faces allegations of bribery and fraud.

Meanwhile, Israeli TV Channel 10 reported that Netanyahu will be investigated over two separate matters. Both the Justice Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office refused to comment on the issue.

Hours before the report, lawyer and labour party activist El dad Yaniv wrote on Facebook that Mandelblit “realised there was no other choice but to open an investigation” due to what he said was “weighty proof linking Bibi, as Netanyahu is popularly called, to suspicions of bribery and fraud” allegedly available to police.

Yaniv, joined by Erel Margalit of the Zionist Union, petitioned the High Court of Justice in December, demanding to clarify why the Attorney General had not opened the probe earlier.

Mandelblit’s decision reportedly comes after police have obtained new documents in a secret probe against Netanyahu by special police unit Lahav 433, which was launched in June. The probe was approved by police chief Roni Alsheich, who demanded secrecy and that no details of the investigation be leaked to the media.

Earlier, it was reported that Mandelblit reportedly instructed employees in the state prosecutor’s office to investigate the allegations that Netanyahu accepted €1 million ($1.04 million) from Arnaud Mimran, a French businessman currently serving eight years in prison for committing carbon tax fraud. Mirman claimed he donated money for Netanyahu’s 2009 election campaign -- an allegation that the PM has repeatedly denied.

The subject of the second probe was, however, not known to the public, Channel 10 reported. Netanyahu’s spokesperson has lately dismissed the allegations of bribery and fraud as “nonsense”.