Police looking into fresh allegations against Netanyahu
Many-pronged investigation swings in new direction, with officials likely to decide on possible criminal probe by next month
Police are looking into new allegations as part of an ongoing probe into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Channel 2 reported Thursday, though it did not offer details on what the new claims may entail.
Law enforcement officials were expected to make a decision on whether to launch a criminal investigation against the prime minister by the holiday season in October, the report said.
During recent months, police have been investigating several cases relating to Netanyahu and his associates. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit had ordered police to stop work into one of the cases, according to reports Wednesday.
According to the Haaretz newspaper, that particular case involves US-born Ari Harow, who headed American Friends of Likud from 2003 to 2006 and served as Netanyahu’s bureau chief in 2008-2010, and again in 2014.
Suspicions arose that American Friends of Likud financed overseas trips for Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, and underwrote the salary of Odelia Karmon, who was a private adviser to Netanyahu while he was in the opposition, at a cost of $10,000 per month. The period under investigation was prior to 2009, when Harow was in charge. Netanyahu returned to the prime minister’s chair in 2009 and has remained in power since.
Differences of opinion have arisen between Mandelblit, who believes the probe is leading nowhere, and police investigators, who wish to question additional figures under caution, Haaretz said. One of the people police want to talk to is the Netanyahu family’s lawyer, David Shimron.
Ari Harow began working as a foreign affairs adviser to Netanyahu in 2007, while the latter was in the opposition, and Netanyahu appointed him bureau chief in 2008. Harow left politics in 2010 to start a political consultancy firm, which works with politicians and political campaigns. He served a second stint as the PM’s bureau chief in 2014, and directed the election campaign that kept Netanyahu in office in the 2015 national elections.
A statement issued on Netanyahu’s behalf said: “All the activities of the prime minister and his wife during the period in question, and at all times, were carried out within the law and according to the accepted rules. Attempts by elements in the media to put unacceptable pressure on law enforcement figures so they will take action against Netanyahu will not work this time either, for the simple reason that there isn’t, and wasn’t, anything.”
In December 2015, Harow was questioned under caution on suspicion of fraud and breach of trust, and was held under house arrest for five days.
In July, he was detained for questioning at Ben Gurion Airport and grilled for 14 hours in connection with the suspected financial violations involving Netanyahu.
