VIDEO - The gag order on the allegations made against former Knesset Member Azmi Bishara was lifted on Wednesday, three weeks after rumors began circulating regarding the investigation against him.
According to suspicions, Balad's chairman contacted a Hizbullah official during last summer's war in Lebanon and handed him information on strategic locations in Israel in order to enable the Shiite organization to fire rockets at these destinations. Bishara allegedly received hundreds of thousands of shekels in exchange for this information.
A joint Police-Shin Bet investigation has been carried out against Bishara in recent months. Bishara was questioned by the police on two occasions, and was asked to present his version of the affairs.
During his last questioning, the former MK informed the police he plans to leave the country for a few days, and never returned.
The police and Shin Bet suspect that the money Bishara received for his services to Hizbullah was transferred through Syria and Lebanon to three money changers in east Jerusalem. The three had already been investigated by the police, and one of them may become a state witness.
Bishara's office, house searched
Following Bishara's resignation from the Knesset, his office at the Knesset building was sealed in order to prevent documents from being taken out of there.
Last week, Shin Bet and police officers arrived at Bishara's house in Haifa and collected documents that may assist in the investigation. On Monday, documents were gathered from his Knesset office as well.
The main suspicions against Bishara were cleared for publication last week.
Following the publication, Bishara gave an interview to the Al-Jazeera TV channel, and said, "Israel is trying to accuse me of security offenses. They object to the ideas I promote – like democratic thought, equality and a state for all its citizens, and therefore they claim that my actions were actually a cover for offenses against national security, or that I provided the enemy with information during a time of war."
Bishara dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and drummed up to avert the public's attention from Israel's leadership crisis following the results of the Second Lebanon War.