Two businesspeople have admitted to investigators of the Israel Police Lahav 433 National Fraud Unit that on several occasions they gave gifts to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to his son Yair, Walla! News reports. The two were questioned in the course of the inquiry into allegations against Netanyahu that became a criminal investigation last week.
The two unconnected businesspeople claimed in questioning that the gifts were given in the context of friendship between them and the Netanyahu family and that they had no thought of receiving any benefit in return. One of them, whose business activity is based overseas, gave the Netanyahu family the gifts overseas. The value of the gifts is high, making the police investigation necessary. The suspicion that the police are investigating is bribery not necessarily for an immediate specific quid pro quo. A law enforcement source said that the investigators had not yet recruited a state's witness, and that they had only the testimony of the people who had given the gifts.
Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu is due to be questioned about the allegations this week. The questioning will take place at the prime minister's official residence in Balfour Street in Jerusalem. Yair Netanyahu is also due to give evidence, and possibly another family member as well.
Last Wednesday, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit ordered the opening of a criminal investigation of Netanyahu following a police inquiry. Walla! News reports that the police have been carrying out simulated questioning of the prime minister. Channel 2 News reported on Thursday that the main affair in the matter is called "Case 1000", and has been examined for a year and nine months, while the other affair, "Case 2000", amounts to new material that has reached the police in recent weeks.
A statement released on behalf the prime minister said, "We did not see this kind of joy in the television studios and in most of the press and media when the investigation of Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On was announced, nor when opposition leader Isaac Herzog was twice questioned this year after he had in the past maintained to right to silence when he was investigated in the affair of the NPOs that supported Ehud Barak. Unfortunately, you will have to be disappointed this tome too, as you have been disappointed in previous baseless affairs. As usual, nothing will come of it, because there is nothing. Try to replace the prime minister through the ballot box, as normal in democratic countries."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 1, 2017
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