Police to question Netanyahu for 12th time in graft probes
Police, prosecution, make no guarantees this is final interrogation over three corruption allegations
Police investigators will question Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the 12th time on Friday, with no guarantees that this will be the final time, Hebrew media reported Tuesday.
Netanyahu will be questioned at his official residence, possibly based on recordings and information provided by former Netanyahu media adviser and confidant-turned-state’s witness, Nir Hefetz.
Netanyahu is a suspect in three investigations, and there was no official confirmation from police as to which the new questioning would focus on.
In Case 1000, the so-called “gifts scandal,” Netanyahu is suspected of “systematically” demanding benefits worth about NIS 1 million ($282,000) from billionaire benefactors, including Arnon Milchan and Australian resort owner James Packer, in exchange for favors.
Case 2000 involves a suspected illicit quid-pro-quo deal between Netanyahu and Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper publisher Arnon Mozes that would have seen the prime minister weaken a rival daily, the Sheldon Adelson-backed Israel Hayom, in return for more favorable coverage from Yedioth.
And in Case 4000 Netanyahu is suspected of advanced regulatory decisions as communications minister and prime minister that benefited Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder in Bezeq, the country’s largest telecommunications firm, despite opposition from the Communication Ministry’s career officials, in exchange for positive coverage from Elovitch’s Walla news site.
Netanyahu has vehemently denied wrongdoing in all of the cases, insisting the gifts were given by friends and were not bribes, and that he never intended to act on his conversations with Mozes.
The prime minister has also insisted all his regulatory decisions affecting Bezeq were in keeping with the recommendations of the ministry’s professional echelons.
Netanyahu was last questioned in August in a four-hour questioning focusing on Case 4000, amid media reports that police were leaning towards recommending a bribery indictment against him in the case.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who will make the final decision whether to indict the prime minister, reportedly intends to examine all three cases at the same time — which will be possible only after he receives the state attorney’s recommendations based on the final police reports.
That process puts the likely date of any final word on whether a trial may be in Netanyahu’s future in late 2019, possibly after the next Knesset elections. The next elections are currently slated for November 2019, but may be held earlier.
Raoul Wootliff contributed to this report.
