Israeli Police have revealed that they have a lot of evidence to charge the Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu and his wife with fraud and bribery. The police recommended that the Prime Minister be indicted based on a corruption case that involved an Israeli telecommunication company. This has led to calls for the resignation of the Prime Minister.
The Police revealed that their investigation has created a foundation to charge Netanyahu and his wife with fraud, breach of trust and acceptance of bribes. There had been suspicions that Netanyahu and his confidants promoted some regulations that were worth millions of dollars to the telecommunication company called Bezeq in exchange for positive coverage of the Prime Minister on Walla which is a news website owned by Bezeq.
Before this time, the Police had already recommended indicting Netanyahu on corruption charges in two other cases that involved offers of favorable legislation for positive coverage in the media and gifts from billionaires.
Netanyahu has denied all allegations and called the accusations a witch hunt orchestrated by the media. Netanyahu issued a statement stating that the police recommendations did not come as a surprise to him or anyone. He said that the recommendations were decided and leaked before the investigations started.
The most serious case of all is the Bezeq case also known as Case 4000. Two top confidants of Netanyahu are already state witnesses and they have been providing the Police with information on the case. The communication portfolio of the government was held by Netanyahu till last year and he oversaw government regulations in the field. Some former journalists at Walla had admitted that they had been pressured not to report negative news on Netanyahu.
About 60 witnesses have testified and some testified that Netanyahu and the boss of Bezeq called Shaul Elovitch engaged in a relationship based on bribery. Over a 5-year basis, Netanyahu intervened in the media business and promoted positive articles and images while quenching false reports about him and his family.
The head of the Meretz opposition party, Tamar Zandberg has called for the resignation of Netanyahu. Zandberg said that the Prime Minister had no moral grounds to keep his seat and he must resign for elections to be held to appoint a new Prime Minister. Another opposition leader called Tzipi Livni called for Netanyahu to resign.
Colleagues of Netanyahu in the ruling Likud party have attacked the outgoing Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh for releasing the recommendation on his last day. Other partners have said that they would wait for a decision by the Israeli attorney general to press charges.
The Netanyahu government is already weakened by the departure of the Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman and his party. Netanyahu’s coalition just has a slim margin at the parliament to hold on to.
The police also recommended that charges be brought against Sara Netanyahu, the Prime Minister wife. She has already been charged with accused of corruption and breach of trust. She allegedly overspent extravagantly on several things and she has been accused of maltreating staff. In 2016, she was made to pay $42,000 to a former employee after she was found guilty of abusing him.
