Netanyahu quizzed for 5 hours on costly cigar gifts from billionaire, 2nd corruption case

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was questioned by police for over five hours on Thursday, in the second such interrogation in four days, as an ongoing corruption investigation against him gathered pace.

According to a police statement, Netanyahu was questioned under caution at his Jerusalem residence over allegations he illegally accepted gifts from wealthy, foreign businessmen, as well as over another corruption affair which some Hebrew media reports have said is more serious. Investigators have kept a tight lid on the case, with few details leaking.

A second, unnamed suspect, had also been interrogated in recent days, police said without providing further details.

Netanyahu’s office declined to comment, but the prime minister has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. In a three-hour interview with police on Monday, Netanyahu admitted that he had received gifts from businessmen, but insisted they were entirely legal, his lawyer said Tuesday.

According to reports in Hebrew-language media, police are investigating suspicions that Netanyahu and his wife Sara illicitly accepted cigars worth hundreds of thousands of shekels and champagne from acclaimed American-Israeli Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan. Some reports said Milchan has also been questioned by police.

Channel 2 news reported Thursday evening that Netanyahu received the cigars from Milchan over the last seven-eight years. Sara received bottles of pink champagne worth hundreds of shekels apiece during that period, the TV report said.

Netanyahu is known as a connoisseur of fine cigars, and Channel 2 noted rumors the prime minister smokes tens of thousands of shekels’ worth of them each month.

The identity of the second businessman is not yet known.

Some 50 people are said to have testified to date in the probe.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who is overseeing the investigation against Netanyahu, has said the prime minister is suspected of “receiving improper benefits from businessmen.” He has provided few other details.

The inquiry has led to fierce debate in Israeli political circles, with Netanyahu’s allies accusing opposition politicians and some in the media of unfairly pressuring the attorney general.

Attorney Yaakov Weinroth told Channel 2 news Tuesday that the two businessmen in question were old friends of the prime minister, and the gifts were “the smallest of trifles.”

Weinroth alleged that unnamed rivals of the prime minister were lodging false complaints against him, citing as evidence the closing of four other probes into alleged financial improprieties by the prime minister.

Sources close to Netanyahu have pointed out that Milchan — whose films include “Fight Club” and “Pretty Woman” — sits on the board of Channel 10, which the prime minister has previously tried to shutter.

Channel 10 is also partially owned by US billionaire and World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, who has also been questioned by police in connection with the case. Lauder, whose family founded the Estee Lauder cosmetics giant, has long been seen as an ally of Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has also acknowledged receiving money from French tycoon Arnaud Mimran, who was sentenced to eight years in prison in France over a scam involving the trade of carbon emissions permits and taxes on them.

The Prime Minister’s Office said Netanyahu received $40,000 in contributions from Mimran in 2001, when he was not in office, as part of a fund for public activities, including appearances abroad to promote Israel.

AFP and Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.