On the day of Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh’s retirement, Police and the Israel Securities Authority released its findings in the investigation of case 400, a.k.a. the Bezeq case, presenting evidentiary foundations to indict Prime Minister Netanyahu and businessman Shaul Elovitch on bribery charges.
The police will apparently seek to indict the prime minister, and it is estimated that this case, too, like other cases against the PM, presents an evidentiary basis for bribery indictments.
The police intend to request that additional suspects be brought to trial, including Sara Netanyahu, Shaul Elovitch, his wife Iris, his son Or, and former Bezeq CEO Stella Handler.
The move to indict requires the approval of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, and the police and the Israel Securities Authority are awaiting his response.
At the same time, an evidentiary infrastructure is being formed against the Prime Minister’s son, Yair, although it is not yet clear whether he, too, will be charged. The suspicions against Sara and Yair Netanyahu for bribery were noted despite the fact that neither is a public figure, because the two allegedly collaborated on the bribery deal with the prime minister.
According to police, Yair and Sara were used by the prime minister to reach out to Iris Elovitch, the wife of the Bezeq owner, and to Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua, in order to turn the news website’s coverage more sympathetic to the prime minister.
Police and the prosecution have evidence that the controlling shareholder of Bezeq Shaul Elovitch and his family put heavy pressure on Walla, demanding positive coverage for Netanyahu. As part of a dramatic state-witness flip of Shlomo Filber, Director General of the Communications Ministry, Filber is expected to explain why the tycoon Elovitch was involved in such an unprecedented manner on behalf of the prime minister, who also served at the time as communications minister.
In a TV interview some six months ago, Filber vowed to never turn state’s evidence against Netanyahu.
“I never spoke to him (Netanyahu) about these things, this subject never came up in our conversations,” Filber said at the time. “I served the country, I love it and I am willing to help with anything connected to the investigation in order to arrive at the truth. I will not be a state witness.”
So he said.
