Holyland affair: Was Rabbi Ovadia Yosef bribed?

The investigators asked Rabin whether he had given Rabbi Yosef about NIS 1 million (about $270,000) in donations. He was also asked whether he had transferred money to Knesset Member Ruhama Avraham-Balila and former Minister Dan Naveh (Likud).

Rabin is considered the main suspect in the affair as the police suspect his job was to advance different projects by transferring bribes to senior public figures.

He is suspected of taking a bribe and handing it to Jerusalem Municipality officials in order to advance the projects. Rabin is the only suspect detained since the affair was cleared for publication who is still under arrest.

Speaking at the Petah Tikva District Court, Attorney Zilberstein said that "these claims are groundless. He denies the allegations. They are looking for a reason to extend his arrest. They accused him of bribing these public figures and we must check what the police are relaying on.

"The police are trying to break my client down with things that have nothing to do with him. If the accusations are so serious and include bribing high-ranking figures, how is it possible that the police did not present these claims to him and only remembered them now?"

Lieberman: This is nonsense

MK Nissim Zeev (Shas) denied Rabbi Yosef's involvement in the affair. "Evil is he who slanders our master, even in a hint. This is an insult to a sage of Israel and this is a very serious matter," he told Ynet.

The MK accused the police of systematically leaking details of the investigation. "Why could they not be discreet?" he wondered.

"This is complete nonsense. I don't know this person, Rabin. He is not close to the wise man Ovadia and has never been in his home. This is all nonsense."

He added that "the investigation is going on and branching out without any proportions. You can reach half the State of Israel this way, and what is happening is that they are mentioning people's names and horrible reports harming innocent people."

Minister Meshulam Nahari heard about the affair while attending a meeting of the Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs. "Rabbio Ovadia does not engage in such things and has nothing to do with them," he said. "He is far from it. Anything that has to do with Shas, people immediately think about Rabbi Ovadia. There is a lot of disinformation when it comes to the Holyland affair.

Foreign Minister Lieberman's office responded to the allegations by saying, "This is nonsense that should not be dignified with a response."

MK Avraham-Balila said, "This is nonsense and slander that I do not plan to let pass. I never met the man in question. I plan to instruct my lawyer to look into this gibberish and file a criminal complaint for libel against whoever made this false, delusional accusation."

Former Minister Naveh said, "It's a shame that names like mine are casually blown into the air, when it is clear that only wild imagination could connect them to the affair."

Judge Avraham Tal explained his decision to keep Rabin in custody: "A review of the planned investigation activities and the activities already carried out shows that the police are operating intensively and efficiently to advance the probe, and the lack of cooperation at the stage on Rabin's part does not contribute to its progress.

"He is entitled not to cooperate with his investigators, and is not disclosing the reason why he won’t cooperate, but he must know that the investigation will naturally be prolonged, and if his release my sabotage it he will have to remain under arrest until the operation activities which may be sabotaged by his release are carried out."

Ronen Medzini contributed to this report