Police Begin Questioning Netanyahu in Graft Affair

Local Editor

Investigative police arrived on Friday morning at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official residence to begin another round of questioning as part of the Bezeq-Walla corruption affair, also known as Case 4000.

It is expected to be the final time that police officers question the prime minister at his residence on Balfour Street in al-Quds [Jerusalem] as investigative teams begin wrapping up the case and assembling the final details.

Two police vehicles arrived on Friday at Netanyahu's residence while protesters at the entrance waved a large banner reading "crime minister" and chanted slogans calling for justice.

The investigation involves suspicions that Bezeq majority shareholder Shaul Elovitch and Netanyahu had a quid pro quo relationship in which Bezeq enjoyed regulatory benefits in return for favorable coverage of the Netanyahu family on Walla! News, which is owned by the telecommunications giant.

As was published last week in Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth, Netanyahu and Elovitch allegedly had a secret meeting in 2015 ahead of an important discussion at the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council on the merger of telecommunications giant Bezeq and satellite TV company Yes.

Both Netanyahu and Elovitch concealed the conflict of interest and only later, under court order, revealed that they met several times.

As part of the investigation—also known as Case 4000 or the Bezeq corruption affair—police have collected testimonies according to which the 2015 meeting concerned the planned merger, and Elovitch, then the owner of Bezeq, was satisfied by the outcome of the meeting.

Netanyahu was also questioned last month in the case and grilled for five hours at the Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit in Lod, after which he released a statement saying that “nothing new was presented” during the extensive round of interrogation and denied having ever done any deal with Elovitch.

In May, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said that the investigation surrounding the affair was approaching its final stages, while asserting that the Israeli judicial system “is under attack” from coalition forces.

“The investigation into the case is in its latter stages. Hundreds of testimonies were gathered, some of them from across the sea. Many documents and exhibits were seized,” Mandelblit said during a speech at the annual Conference of the Israel Bar Association in Eilat.

According to the attorney general, police are also in the midst of wrapping up Case 1000 (the Gifts Affair) and Case 2000 (the Netanyahu-Mozes Affair) all of which focus on the prime minister.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team