Police said weighing whether to accuse PM of accepting bribe

Police believe the investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over expensive gifts he allegedly received from businessmen will last another 4-6 weeks and will lead to a recommendation to indict the Israeli leader, Channel 2 news reported Friday evening.

According to the report, officials are currently looking at two options: accusing the premier of breach of trust only, or adding the more serious charge of accepting a bribe.

Channel 2 said police intend to separate the gifts probe, known as Case 1000, from the other probes underway against Netanyahu, and will forward the case to the state prosecution with their recommendation once the investigation is complete. Such a recommendation has no legal standing; a decision on whether to prosecute is the prerogative of the state prosecution only.

The prime minister is expected to be called in for at least one more session of questioning before that time, the report said.

Police are checking whether the Netanyahus received some NIS 400,000-600,000 ($100,000-150,000) in gifts of cigars and fine wines from Hollywood movie producer Arnon Milchan. The couple have reportedly insisted that the sums involved were far lower, and that the gifts were unremarkable seeing that the Milchans are their close friends. Other businessmen are also alleged to have provided the Netanyahus with gifts.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing.

On Wednesday Channel 2 reported that investigators were trying to establish what Milchan stood to gain by providing the prime minister with the gifts. The probe is looking at how the national broadcast authority dealt with Channel 10 television station, in which Milchan has a 9.8-percent stake, but so far has not found any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Channel 10 on Friday provided details on Sara Netanyahu’s questioning by police over the Milchan affair.

The prime minister’s wife reportedly told investigators that her husband had been unaware of the gifts of champagne allegedly worth many thousands of shekels that the couple received from Milchan over the years — backing up his claim to that effect.

“He’s a very busy prime minister,” she told investigators, according to Channel 10. “He’d come home to see wine on the table and he didn’t ask where it came from. It wasn’t something he thought of at all.”

She also claimed the champagne was much less expensive than reports had indicated. “I don’t drink expensive champagnes,” she said.

Netanyahu also claimed she was very close friends with Milchan, saying he would regularly call her “sister.”

On Wednesday Haaretz reported that Sara Netanyahu allegedly asked Milchan and received an item of jewelry as a birthday gift last year worth over the NIS 10,000 ($2,670).

Channel 10 related Netanyahu’s response to the claim: “It was a $200-$300 necklace, certainly not the sums you’re talking about.”

Reporting last month on what it said was the Hollywood producer’s testimony to police in the preceding weeks, Channel 2 said Milchan told investigators that cigars, champagne and other valuables he gave to the Netanyahus started as occasional gifts, but morphed into a steady supply. The prime minister and his wife would make specific demands, and even send him reminders, and he would send supplies, the TV report quoted Milchan as saying.

The prime minister is also being investigated in a second case, known as Case 2000, which involves alleged negotiations with the publisher of the Yedioth Aharonoth daily, Arnon Mozes, and focuses on the prime minister’s supposed promise to advance legislation to hobble the Sheldon Adelson-controlled Israel Hayom paper in exchange for more favorable coverage from Yedioth.

According to Haaretz, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is only expected to give a decision in September on whether to indict Netanyahu.

Also on Wednesday, the state responded to a petition by attorney Eldad Yaniv demanding that Mandelblit be excluded from dealing with any of the ongoing graft investigations into Netanyahu due to a conflict of interest rooted in his previous position as cabinet secretary.

The state called for the petition to be rejected, arguing Yaniv’s claims are not based on facts and also have no legal foundation.

“During Mandelblit’s term as cabinet secretary, and so also today, his relationship with members of the government, including the prime minister, were on a professional basis and not personal or political,” the response said.

As details of the probes continue to emerge, they have also fueled speculation that, should he be indicted, his governing coalition could collapse, boosting the prospect of new elections. Senior coalition politicians have suggested, however, that an alternative coalition could be forged, without recourse to general elections.