Police haul in Israeli PM
Jerusalem – Israeli police questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday for the first time in a corruption case that involves the country’s largest telecommunications company Bezeq, Israel Radio said.
Along with two other corruption cases, in which Netanyahu is suspected of bribery, the probes pose a serious threat to the fourterm prime minister’s political survival. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing in all the cases.
In the newest investigation known as Case 4 000, police allege the owners of Bezeq Israel Telecom provided favourable coverage of Netanyahu and his wife on a news website they controlled in return for favours from communications regulators.
A police spokesperson declined to comment. A Reuters cameraman saw a vehicle carrying two police officers pull into the prime minister’s official residence yesterday morning. Israel Radio said Netanyahu’s wife Sara was providing testimony at the same time, at a police station near Tel Aviv.
The controlling shareholder of Bezeq Telecom, Shaul Elovitch, is in police custody, along with a former Netanyahu spokesperson. They deny any wrongdoing. Shlomo Filber, a confidant of Netanyahu and former director-general of the communications ministry, has also been arrested in connection with the case, and has agreed to turn state witness, according to Israeli media.
Netanyahu, Israel’s dominant political figure for a generation, calls the allegations against him a “witch hunt”. Police recommended in February that Netanyahu be indicted in two other corruption investigations. The attorney-general must determine whether to accept the police recommendation to charge him. The final decision on both cases could take months.
In one, known as Case 1 000, he is suspected of bribery over gifts, which police say were worth nearly $300 000, that he received from wealthy business people.
The other, Case 2 000, involves an alleged plot to win positive coverage in Israel’s biggest newspaper by offering to take measures to curtail the circulation of a rival daily.
So far, partners in Netanyahu’s governing coalition have stood by him. Political analysts say that could change if the investigations against Netanyahu intensify.