Former foreign minister Eli Cohen grilled by cops over diplomatic passports for Likud mayors, PM’s son

Energy Minister Eli Cohen is being questioned by police investigators as a possible suspect over allegations that diplomatic passports were unlawfully issued to several Likud mayors as well as Yair Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Cohen was serving as foreign minister at the time the passports were issued.

Cohen, who is grilled by investigators from the Lahav 433 serious crime unit, posts on X that he had been “asked to give my version of events” about the affair, and says that the investigation involved only four diplomatic passports which he said had been issued by the director general of the ministry.

He says that Yair Netanyahu’s diplomatic passport had been renewed several times since 2009 by several ministry directors, due to his security detail.

And the minister says the issuance of diplomatic passports for three mayors had been done “in accordance with ministry procedures” due to their “international activities,” and insists that such passports have been issued for similar reasons to other mayors in the past.

Cohen says that the investigation should have “never been opened” but that “as a law-abiding citizen” he was willing to answer any questions about the matter.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel welcomes Cohen’s questioning, noting that the investigation was prompted by its petition to the High Court of Justice against diplomatic passports being issued to political associates of cabinet ministers.

“Now that [it has emerged] that the investigation is well-founded, we demand that the authorities act immediately: collect the diplomatic passports that were distributed illegally and are still in the hands of those who are not entitled to them, and bring to justice all those involved in the affair,” the organization says.