Coalition whip to be interrogated under caution in bribery probe — report
David Bitan says he's unaware of any fresh development regarding investigation into his conduct as Rishon Lezion deputy mayor
Coalition chairman David Bitan of the Likud will be interrogated by police under caution in the coming days regarding suspicions of bribe-taking before he entered the Knesset, Hadashot news reported Wednesday.
Last month, the Haaretz daily wrote that the police’s National Fraud Investigation Unit had been gathering evidence of wrongdoing by Bitan during his tenure as deputy mayor of Rishon Lezion from 2005 to 2015.
Bitan, who insisted he was innocent when the story broke, told Hadashot news Wednesday that he was unaware of the development. Israel Police also refused the TV channel’s request for comment.
Between 2008 and 2010 and again in 2013, Bitan headed the city’s local planning and building committee. At the same time he reportedly ran up huge debts with loans taken on the gray market, telling friends that he owed more than NIS 7 million ($2 million). Part of his salary was frozen and legal proceedings were instituted against him, the report said.
In a report a year ago in the financial daily The Marker, a Rishon Lezion city official said that Bitan went underground for a while to escape his creditors.
Bitan, a longtime Likud activist, was appointed coalition chair shortly after entering the Knesset in the 2015 election. Despite being a freshman lawmaker, he quickly made a name for himself as a tough coalition chair — Israel’s equivalent of a party whip — gaining the nickname “the bulldozer” for his belligerent enforcement of the government’s legislative agenda. He is considered one of Netanyahu’s closest allies and supporters, and has recently been promoting a bill that would grant immunity from prosecution to serving prime ministers.
Bitan said the report on the investigation was “not coincidental” and was “an attempt to weaken” him.
Raoul Wootliff contributed to this report.