Minister dodges interrogation, attends ex-adviser’s hearing to demand his release

Social Equality Minister May Golan flouted police’s attempts to question her Monday evening about her role in alleged widespread financial crimes in her office, and instead opted to attend the remand hearing of another suspect in the probe, to demand that police release him.

The Likud minister showed up at the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court, in solidarity with her former parliamentary adviser, Ehud Gabbai, who was arrested on suspicion of fraud.

Police, who have been probing Golan and her circle for months, went public with their investigation Monday morning. They arrested Gabbai and carried out a series of raids on the homes of Golan’s associates and the Social Equality Ministry offices in Jerusalem.

In a statement announcing the investigation, police said they suspect Golan and her circle of fraud, misusing public funds for private purposes, creating fictitious positions in the Social Equality Ministry and concealing sources of funding.

All these offenses were committed through the use of NGOs and government systems as a “tool for illegally extracting funds,” police added.

Later that day, Golan was summoned for questioning by investigators in the police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit. Although her defense attorney first indicated she would show up for the interrogation, Golan later said she would only heed the summons if police released Gabbai.

“I will consider coming to the interrogation only if all my associates who were arrested, with the aim of intimidating me, are released immediately,” she declared, accusing police of “threatening innocent people just because they worked and [currently] work for May Golan the ‘Bibist,’” referring to her support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

After skipping her interrogation, Golan came to the courthouse and told the press she would “show up to any interrogation” once her associates were released. To a group of reporters gathered there, she insisted that she “has nothing to fear and nothing to hide.”

Police sought to extend Gabbai’s detention for a week in his remand hearing, but the judge rejected their request and ruled that he would be released to house arrest until Wednesday.

Golan reportedly burst into tears upon hearing the decision, exclaiming that “God is with us, blessed is God.”

In addition to arresting Gabbai, police also detained five other suspects for questioning and then released them at the end of the interrogation.

Among the detained suspects was a current adviser to Golan. While searching the adviser’s home in Yavne, police stumbled upon a marijuana growing operation, which, according to Hebrew reports, was operated by the adviser’s husband.

The investigation into Golan’s alleged misuse of ministry funds was opened in February, following a Channel 12 exposé, which alleged she created fake positions for relatives of friends and influential colleagues, who did no actual work in the ministry.

The report also accused Golan of fixing jobs for close friends and their relatives, as well as using parliamentary aides for personal tasks, in contravention of Knesset protocol. Aides were reportedly sent to drive Golan’s mother around, buy the minister food, collect packages, and distribute gifts to friends.

In late August, Channel 12 reported that Golan and several prominent figures in Israeli social welfare groups engineered an elaborate deal in which her ministry would give money to ZAKA for a program ostensibly aimed at aiding the elderly, while, in reality, the money would go to her and associates.