Likud MK suspected of rape urges police to halt ‘political investigation’

Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky, the newly appointed Knesset Finance Committee chairman who is suspected of rape and witness tampering, appeals to the head of the police’s investigations department, demanding that the case against him be closed.

He tells Deputy Commissioner Boaz Blatt that the probe is a “political investigation” intended to harm his reputation, Walla reports. “The timing of the opening of the investigation ahead of my appointment is no coincidence,” he claims, insisting that “the truth will soon be revealed.”

Milwidsky is under investigation for allegedly raping a woman while serving as a legal adviser to the head of a New Age religious association called “Bnei Baruch — Kabbalah La’am.” According to the allegations, he was coaching a woman who had been raped by the group’s head to testify falsely in support of his innocence, in exchange for pay.

The unnamed woman, who moved to Moscow and flew back to Israel to testify, told police last year that Milwidsky had raped her in a hotel room after she gave her false testimony.

Milwidsky was questioned under caution by police regarding the matter in July. The Likud lawmaker, backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, continues to deny any wrongdoing. He and his party have cast the investigation against him as a witch hunt, as supposed retaliation against the coalition’s attempts to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.