Hadas Klein, assistant to Israeli billionaire Arnon Milchan, tells police that Milchan’s “gifts” of expensive cigars to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the years came at Netanyahu’s explicit request, Hadashot news reports.
“There were times Netanyahu asked personally [for the cigars],” Hadashot quotes Klein as telling police investigators.
Netanyahu would call her directly, she says. “He’d call them ‘leaves.’ Milchan didn’t smoke, but I notified the guy who works with him that he was paying for it.”
The report also quotes from Milchan’s testimony to police, saying, “These weren’t quite gifts. It was a demand. You don’t demand gifts. it disgusted me.”
The testimonies, as reported by Hadashot, seem to contradict Netanyahu’s main defense in the graft probe over the expensive gifts, according to which the luxury cigars and champagne bottles he received over the years were gifts from close friends, and not bribes.
Arnon Milchan (center) with Shimon Peres (left) and Benjamin Netanyahu, March 28, 2005. (Flash90)
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