MK Rosenthal: 'The police will recommend charging the PM'
Zionist Union MK Mickey Rosenthal claims that according to information he received, the police intends to recommend that an indictment will be served against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for accepting Illicit gifts and a breach of trust.
MK Mickey Rosenthal (Zionist Union) said on Saturday that according to information he got from reliable sources, the police have decide to recommend that an indictment will be served against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"The police was also asked to complete their investigation on some levels, but they have definitively decided to recommend an indictment against the Prime Minister, charging him with two counts—accepting illicit gifts and breach of trust," said Rosenthal.
"I say this based on facts that were shared with me; I'm not just saying things with no basis," he added.
Rosenthal mentioned that "between a recommendation by the police and an actual indictment stands the attorney general. There have been cases in the past, in the Amedi Affair and others, where the police recommended that Netanyahu be charged, yet it ended in a public report and no indictment.
"I don't know how it will end this time, but I know what the police are aiming to recommend. You'll be able to check me on that in about two and a half months."
MK Rosenthal made these claims two days after Liat Ben Ari, the prosecutor in Netanyahu's illicit gifts case, said in a panel arranged by the Israel Bar Association that "when you're talking about hundreds of thousands of shekels given to a public representative, it's hard for me to accept that it can possibly be just a present from a friend."
Ben Ari then responded to the question of whether small gifts are considered a serious bribery offense: “Everything depends on the circumstances.” She added, “The question of friendship comes up in every case. I know about myself and my friends—none of us demands receiving hundreds of thousands of shekels as a gift.
“The interests in such a situation must be examined. There are a lot of bribery cases now. Every case is a whole world for us, and there is no doubt that it is very interesting for us to examine the relationship between the giver and the recipient.”
The prime minister’s office issued a response to Ben Ari that reads, “There is no basis to claim that something was improper with the relationships between the prime minister and his colleagues.
“First—the close friendship between the families is an unequivocal and indisputable fact, including during periods that the prime minister was a private citizen.
“Second—we deny the amounts that are given, and in any case, it was cigars that were given on multiple occasions over 17 years of friendship. Therefore, the claim that one gift was given at a value of hundreds of thousands of shekels or many gifts worth thousands of dollars each were given is simply not true.
“Third—during all these years there were no interests, and no compensation was given. We repeat: There was nothing, and therefore there will be nothing.”
The prime minister's office also issued a response concerning Rosenthal's claim, sarcastically saying "what a surprise," adding that "after the police leaked for months that they intend to recommend that charges will be filed, did anyone really think that they'll have the courage to step down from their soapbox and admit they have nothing so support it?"
It further went to specifically call out Rosenthal, saying "and as for the newly self appointed police spokesman, Mickey Rosenthal, we say to him and his friends in the left: look for salvation elsewhere."
(Translated and edited by Lior Mor)
