[ad_1]
Police investigations of corruption charges against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have come to a close, Israeli television reported on Tuesday evening.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is expected to make a decision on whether to indict the premier within the next six months, around the first quarter of 2019, Hadashot TV news station reported.
Netanyahu has been embroiled in several corruption cases, fueling speculation he could be forced to step down or call an early election, but he has maintained his innocence and has denounced all allegations against him as a media and police witch hunt.
He has been questioned at least 12 times by investigators in the corruption cases, while his family members were also questioned at various points.
The three current probes surrounding him have been dubbed Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000, which deal with various incidence of bribery, fraud, as well as quid pro quo arrangement for favorable press coverage of Netanyahu and his family.
The police recommended his indictment in the former two cases back in February, but investigators still need to write one for Case 4000 and amend the recommendations in the other two cases due to a former senior aide to Netanyahu who turned state’s witness.
A State Prosecutor’s Office source quoted by Hadashot said investigators would “surprise everyone” by turning out their recommendations sooner than expected.
In “Case 1,000”, the police allege Netanyahu accepted around 1 million shekels ($280,000) worth of luxury gifts from a number of wealthy benefactors in exchange for favorable government treatment.
“Case 2,000” centers on an alleged arrangement with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes to limit circulation of the newspaper’s main rival in exchange for more favorable coverage
In case 4000, police suspect that both Netanyahu and his wife Sara knowingly accepted bribes in a corruption case linked to the Bezeq telecommunications firm.
As part of a broader corruption investigation, police reportedly suspect that Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder in Israel’s Bezeq communications giant, was fed insider information from the communications ministry by two close badociates of Netanyahu — Shlomo “Momo” Filber and Nir Hefetz.
Media reports citing police say that Elovitch put pressure on editors and journalists at the popular Bezeq-owned Walla news website to cast Netanyahu and his wife Sara in a positive light and downplay negative stories about the government in exchange for concessions benefiting Bezeq.
Source link
