Police to grill Netanyahu on Monday over graft suspicions — report
PM offers investigators as long as they want, after they complained he hadn't found time for them, Channel 2 says
Police are to question Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under caution at his home on Monday on suspicion that he accepted valuable gifts from businessmen, Hebrew media reported Sunday.
Investigators were finally able to arrange an interview with the prime minister after having failed for several days to secure a meeting, Channel 2 television said. Netanyahu will be available for as long as investigators need, Israel Radio said. The prime minister has denied any wrongdoing.
According to Channel 2, police had contacted the Prime Minister’s Bureau five days ago with a request to set up an interview, without success until Sunday.
Earlier in the day Netanyahu brushed off the investigation against him, urging opposition politicians to “calm down.”
The prime minister is being investigated over allegations he accepted a “string of valuable gifts” from at least two businessmen during his time as prime minister, Channel 10 reported Saturday night.
Previous reports have said one of the businessmen is based abroad but has interests in Israel and the second is Israeli.
Police have collected a great deal of “well-founded” material relating to the suspicions, TV reports said, including from witnesses very close to the prime minister. Among the 50 people who have already testified is World Jewish Congress President Ron Lauder, Channel 2 reported.
Reports emerged last week that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit had approved a full criminal investigation into the prime minister.
Some of the alleged valuable gifts were also given to members of Netanyahu’s family, TV reports said last week, and it is believed the gifts were not reported to the relevant authorities. Channel 10 said on Friday that Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son, would be among those asked to give testimony.
According to the Channel 10 report, the central suspicions against Netanyahu were breach of trust and unlawfully accepting gifts. As yet, the television report said, there were no suspicions of bribery.
Netanyahu on Friday rejected the accusations as “baseless,” saying “this will come to nothing, because there is nothing.”