According to defense lawyers, the Israel Police claim that "mediator" Meir Rabin, who was arrested three weeks ago in the Holyland case, allegedly transferred $1 million to top political figures. Rabin's attorneys Adv. Eli Cohen and Adv. Giora Zilbershtein claim that the police have directing questions along these lines to Rabin in the past few days, in order to keep him in jail, break him, and make him cooperate by incriminating others in the scandal.
Figures reportedly include Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman, and former ministers MK Ruhama Avraham-Balila (Kadima) and Danny Naveh.
"Rabin has been in jail and his remand extended, while the tycoons are let out," Zilbershtein told "Globes". "In fact, he is the only person remaining in, and now they're suddenly tossing this bombshell into the questioning. This means that they're trying to find a way to extend his remand again, in order to break his spirit."
Zilbershtein said that Rabin cooperated with the investigators in the beginning, before he stopped answering their questions. He has not said anything incriminating, but claims that he was not involved in the affairs in question, both the Holyland case and the Israel Salt Industries Ltd. case.
Spokesmen for Rabbi Yosef, Lieberman, Avraham-Balila, and Naveh vehemently deny the police allegations, saying that they never received any money. Naveh said, "It's a shame that names like mine are being floated into the air, when it's obvious that only wild imagination could possibly link them to the affair."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 26, 2010
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