Two Foreign Ministry workers charged over theft, bribery

Two senior members of the Foreign Ministry were indicted Wednesday for theft of ministry funds, bribery and other corruption charges.

Avshalom Ashuri, head of logistics at the ministry, and Yehoshua Gabai, deputy chief accountant, were charged in Jerusalem’s District Court of taking advantage of their positions to commit the crimes.

Gabai is accused of attempting to steal over $70 thousand from his office safe. Both are accused of seeking to use office funds to pay for family holidays and in Ashuri’s case, food products worth NIS 150 thousand ($39 thousand).

They are also accused of accepting bribes of various home appliances from a Jerusalem business in return for swaying ministry tenders in its favor.