Sara Netanyahu to be questioned under caution

Sara Netanyahu is to be questioned under caution over suspected spending irregularities at the Prime Minister’s Residence, despite a request by the family’s lawyer to close the investigation.

Police will question Sara Netanyahu on Thursday as part of an ongoing investigation into the cash management at the official and private residences of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Hebrew media reports.

Last week Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein rejected an urgent request by Sara Netanyahu’s attorney for a meeting ahead of his decision on whether to order an investigation into her conduct.

Weinstein in July had ordered a criminal investigation into the cash management at the prime minister’s official Jerusalem residence. He said at the time that neither Netanyahu nor his wife, Sara, were considered suspects.

The decision to launch the investigation came in light of the state prosecutor’s recommendation, after allegations were raised in a report February by State Comptroller Yosef Shapira that detailed lavish spending by Netanyahu and his wife at their official residence in Jerusalem, as well as at their private home in Caesarea. The report also alleged possible criminal misdeeds by the two.

The investigation found multiple alleged irregularities, including in the hiring of electrician Avi Fahima, a Likud Central Committee member. A committee charged with overseeing residence expenditures — and which included the Prime Minister’s Office legal adviser — ruled against the hiring of Fahima, but he was employed nonetheless.

In the Fahima case, the state comptroller report criticized Sara Netanyahu for ordering the electrician’s services at the public’s expense without any external audit of the need for those services, or any confirmation that they were carried out.

For several months in 2010, the comptroller found, Fahima did not produce receipts for his labor, and allegedly received fees far higher than those that appeared in his initial cost estimates.

The report on the expenditures came out in the midst of an election campaign and found that the residence operated for years without an audited budget. It raised questions about the use of public funds, which were spent on — among other things — the upkeep of the Netanyahus’ pool at their private home.

The report also noted that, beginning in 2013 — when criticism led to heightened awareness of the issue among the prime minister’s staff — a systematic, audited budget was instituted and expenditures declined precipitously.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.