AG announces enough evidence against Netanyahu for criminal investigation

Marcy Oster
Published January 3, 2017

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s attorney general said in a statement that police had collected enough information to question the country’s prime minister as a criminal suspect, though he did not detail the evidence.

Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit released the statement late on Monday evening, after Benjamin Netanyahu had been questioned by police from the fraud investigative unit at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem for 3 hours.

The interrogation was arranged after police worked for several days to come to a mutually agreed upon time.

Netanyahu reportedly is accused of accepting valuable gifts from businessmen, including long time friend Ronald Lauder, head of the World Jewish Congress. New evidence collected in recent weeks turned what was to be preliminary questioning into a full investigation, according to the attorney general’s statement.

“The claims that ultimately led to the decision to question Netanyahu came up three months ago as initial suspicions,” the statement said. “Since then, the police have made major efforts to examine them and find evidence to support them.”

“The inquiry developed and branched out in directions different from the ones that initially launched it,” the statement continued.

The statement also listed at least three cases against Netanyahu that have been dropped.

“The nature of the investigation precludes us at this stage from giving details of the ongoing investigation but we will consider releasing more information from time to time according to developments,” the statement said.

Lauder has admitted to giving Netanyahu gifts including suits, as well as hospitality for one of his sons on trips outside of Israel. Lauder has said these were gifts that friends give to each other and serve no other purpose.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing. In a tweet on Tuesday morning Netanyahu reiterated that after years of investigating him and his family police have come up with nothing. “I repeat and say, there won’t be anything because there wasn’t anything,” he tweeted.

Police had announced in a tweet after the interrogation that they had questioned the prime minister at the official residence in Jerusalem.

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