Deri and wife questioned for second time in graft probe

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and his wife Yaffa were questioned for more than six-hours on Monday afternoon in an ongoing corruption case against him, police said

This was the second time the Deris have been questioned, a week after they were interrogated for a marathon 11 hours over a slew of corruption allegations.

A statement from police spokeswoman Luba Samri after the interrogation ended said that Deri was questioned from “early morning,” at the Lahav 433 police unit headquarters in the city of Lod.

Samri said there will be no further statement on Deri’s latest questioning, as the investigation is ongoing.

The minister is under suspicion of money laundering, fraud and breach of trust, theft by an authorized person, fraudulent registration, and tax offenses, according to police.

Deri’s wife, Yaffa, is also suspected of various financial crimes, including tax evasion and using money donated to her nonprofit organization to purchase real estate.

Israeli media reported that police are fairly confident of an indictment against Deri for receiving money illegally but at the same time have quietly dropped any mention of bribery charges and are focusing on other suspected crimes. Police say that they expect the investigation to continue for several more months.

Deri spoke on Thursday about the investigation, saying that he is grateful for everything.

“I give thanks to God,” he said. “I give thanks on behalf of myself and my righteous wife to God for everything that happened, for the investigation and the [negative] publicity. We have no complaints.”

On Sunday the minister told Channel 10, “I am 100 percent sure of myself, thank God.”

Also on Sunday Channel 2 spoke with Shifi Sunnes, the Deris’ daughter and manager of the organization which allegedly received illegal funding. She said that her organization does everything properly and there is no basis for the accusations against her parents.

“There was never a single check that didn’t go where it was supposed to,” Sunnes said. “Every check is receipted. There are so many expenses here,” she said.

Deri, who served a prison sentence for graft offenses that took place during his previous tenure as interior minister in the 1990s, has sought to downplay the allegations and said he would cooperate fully with the investigation to prove his innocence.

Last Monday, the minister and his wife were questioned separately by Lahav 433 investigators for over 11 hours.

Hours before they were questioned, police detained 14 people in connection with the graft probe for questioning. Among those questioned were Israeli-Georgian businessman and philanthropist Mikhael Mirilashvili along with several senior officials from the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, also headed by Deri.

The investigation into Deri, which police began in April 2016 together with the Tax Authority, initially focused on unreported real estate property owned by Deri and members of his family, including a vacation home in northern Israel and apartments owned by each of his nine children.

It has since expanded to include various graft allegations.

At the center of the probe is Mifalot Simcha, the nonprofit organization run by Yaffa Deri for the past 18 years. Mifalot Simcha operates educational institutions for female students and according to reports, also employs three of the couple’s daughters.

Police last week were reportedly considering asking that Deri, who also heads the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, be suspended from his duties as interior minister, as the graft allegations constitute a possible conflict of interest.

As a member of Knesset, Deri enjoys parliamentary immunity, so police would require the approval of the attorney general, as well as the Knesset itself, to implement any direct sanctions against the interior minister without his agreement.

When he was appointed interior minister, Deri’s declaration of capital included property whose value was estimated at NIS 5 million ($1.32 million). That included his apartment in Har Nof, Jerusalem, valued at NIS 4.7 million ($1.24 million), NIS 10,000 in savings ($2,645), a stock portfolio worth NIS 300,000 ($79,350) and a NIS 60,000 ($15,870) car registered in the name of his wife.

Reports say Deri had made some NIS 2 million ($530,000) from consultancy, following his release from jail.

Deri served 22 months in prison from 2000 to 2002, after he was convicted of taking bribes while serving as interior minister.

He reclaimed the leadership of his Shas party shortly before 2015’s Knesset elections, replacing Eli Yishai. He returned to his Interior Ministry post earlier this year after a court ruled his prior conviction did not disqualify him from the post.