Minister suspected of threatening his mother’s tenants

Police are investigating Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi after a couple renting his mother’s apartment claimed he threatened them and broke a window in the home, Channel 2 News reported Tuesday.

The couple claimed that Hanegbi arrived at the Jerusalem apartment after they fell behind in their rent payments. According to their claims, he knocked on the door so violently that he broke a window pane, and then delivered an unspecified threat.

Though the couple initially lodged a complaint against Hanegbi with police, they withdrew it several days later, apparently after reaching an agreement with the minister. The tenants’ lawyer said the two even apologized to Hanegbi.

However, police have kept the probe open, and several days ago called the couple in to question them about the incident.

Hanegbi told Channel 2 the two had “refused to pay rent or to vacate the apartment” of his 91-year-old wheelchair-ridden mother “and tried to deter us from claiming back our property through filing a false accusation with police.”

The minister said the two later “signed a settlement with my mother in which they recanted their claims and left the apartment.”