Sara Netanyahu to be indicted - report

Sara Netanyahu Photo: Lior Mizrahi
Sara Netanyahu Photo: Lior Mizrahi

The prime minister's wife is suspected of four separate offenses costing the state hundreds of thousands of shekels, Channel 2 News reports.

Channel 2 News yesterday reported that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit will file an indictment against Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister's wife.

Sara Netanyahu is suspected of four separate offenses costing the state treasuring hundreds of thousands of shekels. The first is privately employing an electrician who did not win a tender, while rolling the cost on to the state treasury. The second is employing a worker for the Prime Minister's residence paid for by the state who actually treated her late father. The third is purchasing furniture for the official Prime Minister's residence and moving it to the Netanyahu's family home in Caesarea. The fourth is inflating meal expenses at the Prime Minister's residence.

The police recommended indicting Sara Netanyahu 14 months ago, a recommendation recently endorsed by the State Attorney and other parties in the State Attorney's Office.

Sara Netanyahu was summoned last week to the offices of the Israel Police Lahav 433 national fraud squad in order to complete the investigation at the request of the Attorney General, apparently in order to answer questions about the meals served by the Netanyahus in the official Prime Minister's residence for which bills were submitted to the Prime Minister's Office.

The police recommended indicting Sara Netanyahu in the affair in May 2016, after announced that the investigation had been completed and the findings delivered to the State Attorney's Office. Other than Sara Netanyahu herself, the police said that their investigation uncovered evidence justifying the indictment of Prime Minister's Office director general Ezra Saidoff and electrician Avi Fahima.

Sara Netanyahu was interrogated for 12 hours about a number of matters in December 2016, including Fahima's activity and hosting expenses at the Prime Minister's residence. "The Israel Police national unit has completed its investigation concerning the prime minister's residences," the police announced at the time. "At the end of the investigation, all the evidence, findings, and conclusions from the investigation were given to the Jerusalem District State Attorney's Office, which accompanied the investigation, for perusal and a decision."

Earlier yesterday, commenting on progress in the investigation against him in the 1000 and 2000 cases, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the cases would not make him leave office. On his Facebook page, Netanyahu referred to a report on the nrg website that senior Palestinian officials had expressed hope that the investigations would make Netanyahu leave office, saying, "It won't happen." The prime minister also commented on the media reports of the investigation last week, calling them "background noise."

Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on August 8, 2017

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017

Sara Netanyahu Photo: Lior Mizrahi
Sara Netanyahu Photo: Lior Mizrahi
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