Undeterred by new graft allegations, Deri calls for swift probe

A day after Interior Minister Aryeh Deri revealed he was again the center of a major corruption investigation, the undeterred Shas party leader vowed to fully cooperate with police and continue working.

“I am at the disposal of any investigative authority at any minute of every hour to answer when needed,” he told reporters Wednesday morning.

“I’m prepared to answer, help and let them do their job. I only hope the process will be sped up so that I can go back to my job,” Deri said.

“Meanwhile I’m continuing my work as usual,” he added.

Deri, who previously served a prison sentence for graft while in that same post, identified himself as one of two senior lawmakers under investigation for corruption after Channel 2 aired a report on the probe Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit officially approved launching a preliminary probe into Deri and the other lawmaker, who remained unnamed.

Deri served 22 months in prison from 2000 to 2002 after he was convicted of taking bribes while serving as interior minister, and returned to politics earlier this decade to lead the ultra-Orthodox Shas party in the Knesset.

Deri returned to his interior ministry post earlier this year after a court ruled his prior conviction did not disqualify him from the post.

The case could have dramatic repercussions for Deri, as well as for his party’s place in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s narrow governing coalition.

Tuesday’s report sparked harsh criticism from an opposition Knesset member who called him “corrupt” and unfit for public service.

“Aryeh Deri should never have been allowed to return to serve as a minister after his graft conviction,” Zionist Union’s Miki Rosenthal said. “I said this even before the latest allegations were made public: He is corrupt, has abused the trust of the people, has lined his pockets with public funds and is unworthy of serving the public ever.”

Rosenthal said the initial police investigation into political wrongdoing was insufficient, and said the matter should be investigated as a criminal offense.

Investigations into both lawmakers are in a preliminary stage, and neither has been questioned by police.

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked told Army Radio she was surprised to learn of the allegations against Deri, but urged the public to refrain from passing judgment until the police investigation is complete.

“I found out about it from the media like everyone else,” she said. “Its very easy to discredit a person’s name, which is why the investigation is so important.”

In an earlier interview with Army Radio, former Shas MK Nissim Zeev defended Deri, saying he was “confident” he would ultimately be found innocent of wrongdoing.

“When Deri returned to the party, it was out of the belief that he was exonerated from his past offenses and was an effort to turn a new page,” he said.

Shas party spokesman Barak Seri on Wednesday morning said Deri was willing to be be questioned “at any time by any law enforcement authority.”

“He has been going over everything, he knows that he is under a magnifying glass,” Seri told Army Radio.

Elad Shraga, the head of the Movement for Quality Government who in January unsuccessfully challenged Deri’s reappointment in a petition to the High Court, told the radio station the NGO would demand the attorney general update justices on the progress of the case so the petition could be revisited in the future.

Deri’s wife Yaffa Deri, though, tried to put the investigation into a positive historical light.

“We survived Pharaoh, we survived Haman,” she said, referring to biblical villains recalled in the Jewish spring holidays of Purim and Passover. “We find ourselves in an excellent month.”