Police are not planning on indicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for receiving illicit gifts from billionaire benefactors, and will instead push ahead only with the charge of putting himself in a conflict of interest, Channel 2 news reports.
Police are currently probing expensive gifts allegedly given to Netanyahu and his family by wealthy businessmen including US-Israeli movie mogul Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer, and whether any actions subsequently taken on their behalf amount to graft or conflicts of interest. Police are reportedly looking into whether Netanyahu helped Packer gain residency in Israel and aided Michan in his US visa request.
Packer is said to be set to testify Monday as one of the final figures to be questioned in the investigation. Eleven people have been questioned in the last month, the report says.
Australian businessman James Packer speaks to the Financial Review Sunday TV show from Tel Aviv on June 6, 2013. (screen capture: YouTube)
In his own testimony, Netanyahu reportedly told police that he “acted for the good of Israel’s security.”
A second investigation, dubbed “Case 2000,” concerns the prime minister’s recorded discussions with the publisher of the Yedioth Ahronoth daily, Arnon Mozes, about a quid pro quo deal to restrict the activities of a rival newspaper through legislation. No such deal was ever implemented.
— Raoul Wootliff
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