‘Bulgaria asked to keep Hazan away from bilateral ties’

The Oren Hazan scandal leads the main TV news broadcasts.

After Likud MK Hazan threatened Channel 2 with a libel suit over a report aired on Monday evening that alleged he took hard drugs and supplied prostitutes while running a casino in Bulgaria, the station fights back with more details on this evening’s news.

A photocopy of a contract in Hebrew about the operation of a casino is shown, while a status from Hazan Facebook page from several years ago, presumably written by Hazan himself, says “a new casino was opened in Burgas, in Sunny Beach[…] with [option] for transportation to and from the casino 24 hours a day[…] And all the amenities guests require. We will be happy to see you among our guests.”

It also quotes from an email in which Hazan signs himself as the “CEO”.

In the past, Hazan said he never managed a casino but rather a hotel “in which there was also a casino.” Hazan further maintained that the casino was managed by a person he had no contact with.

Channel 2 is adamant that the casino in question is not inside a hotel, and that the hotel in question has been run by the same management for over 20 years — not by Oren Hazan.

According to Channel 1, meanwhile, soon after the swearing-in of the Knesset, a Bulgarian official contacted Israeli officials and asked that Hazan not be involved in any relations between the two countries.