ISRAELI POLICE GRILL NETANYAHU ON NEW FRAUD CASE
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| Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing an eighth police grilling over corruption allegations that have fuelled speculation he could be forced to step down or call an early election |
The questioning, the
eighth such session since 2017, came after police last month recommended
Netanyahu's indictment in two graft cases.
"The Prime
Minister and his wife were questioned for a number of hours as part of an
investigation," a police spokesman said in a statement without giving more
details.
Israeli media said
the five-hour grilling related to allegations Netanyahu sought a deal with
Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder of telecoms group Bezeq, which
would have seen Netanyahu receive good press on Elovitch's Walla! news website
in exchange for business concessions.
Netanyahu, 68, has
denied all charges and rejected talk of stepping down. He is due to meet US
President Donald Trump, perhaps his closest international ally, at the White
House on Monday.
RT ABC "Police investigators enter Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem as authorities continue to investigate the embattled leader over a bribery case. https://t.co/tQwvg0ypIp pic.twitter.com/ToNhzCutzO"— WLEN Radio (@WLENRADIO1039fm) March 2, 2018
An AFP journalist saw police arriving at Netanyahu's official Jerusalem residence in two vehicles at around 9 am (0700 GMT).
His wife Sara was questioned at the national fraud squad headquarters near Tel Aviv, media said.
Elovitch and Nir Hefetz, a former media adviser to the Netanyahu family, were among seven suspects arrested last week as fraud suspicions against Netanyahu snowballed.
In addition, Israeli army radio said Friday that "a former senior communications ministry official close to the prime minister was detained this morning for questioning in the Bezeq affair." He was not named.
Channel 10 News
reported on Thursday evening that police have seen text conversations between
Sara and Elovitch's wife Iris which strengthen suspicions that their husbands
traded favours.
Iris Elovitch and
the couple's son Or were among the seven suspects rounded up last week.
She was released
from custody to house arrest Monday and Or Elovitch was freed on bail, police said.
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| Police visit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Jerusalem residence on March 2, 2018 for what Israeli media said was an eighth round of questioning over allegations of fraud and bribery |
"No such things
ever occurred," it said in Hebrew. "Tendentious and lying leaks
against Mrs. Netanyahu are intended to hurt the prime minister and the Likud
government."
Hefetz is alleged to
have acted as a messenger between Netanyahu and Bezeq and Walla! bosses.
He is also suspected
of trying to bribe a retired judge to block a probe into the prime minister's
wife over alleged misuse of public funds.
Public radio said on
Friday that both were being questioned at fraud squad headquarters
simultaneously with Sara but separately.
Police have now
questioned the premier eight times since the beginning of 2017, and last month
said there was sufficient evidence to charge him with graft, fraud and breach
of trust in two other cases.
In one, he and
family members are suspected of receiving one million shekels ($285,000,
230,000 euros) of luxury cigars, champagne and jewellery from wealthy figures
in exchange for financial or personal favours.
In the other case,
investigators suspect the premier of trying to reach an agreement with the
owner of Yediot Aharonot, a top Israeli daily newspaper, for more favourable
coverage.
Israeli media said
police would question him on the Bezeq affair for the first time on Friday and
would also take from him a statement as a witness in suspected corruption
around Israel's purchase of three submarines from German industrial giant
ThyssenKrupp.
The cases have
fuelled speculation he could be forced to step down or call an early election
but Netanyahu says he is innocent of any wrongdoing.
The other parties in
his rightwing government have so far stood by him.
Eli Kamir, another
former Netanyahu adviser arrested last week, was on Wednesday released from
police custody but placed under house arrest.
Shlomo Filber, a
Netanyahu ally for more than 20 years and former director general of the
communications ministry, was freed last week after agreeing to turn state's
witness in exchange for avoiding jail, police said.
He is suspected of
mediating between Netanyahu and Elovitch and promoting regulatory changes worth
millions to Bezeq.
SOURCE: AFP
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