Attorney general orders investigation in submarines affair

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit orders the Israel Police to formally open an investigation into the so-called “submarines” affair.

The personal attorney for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, David Shimron, is alleged to have lobbied the government to purchase three new Dolphin submarines from the German company ThyssenKrupp despite the IDF allegedly not wanting the new craft.

Last week, Mandelblit suggested there was no cause to open a criminal investigation.

That seems to have changed this week. According to Channel 2, Mandelblit chaired a meeting earlier today that included the head of the Israel Police Investigations Department and that may have included “new evidence,” according to the television report, that raises the suspicion that Netanyahu and Shimron may have acted with a conflict of interest in the affair.