Israeli police have questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the second time in four days on suspicion of graft as a “possible criminal suspect” who received “improper benefits” from businessmen including a prominent Hollywood movie producer.
A police statement said that Netanyahu was questioned for over five hours under caution at his Jerusalem residence over allegations he illegally accepted gifts from wealthy foreign businessmen as well as over another corruption affair, which some Hebrew media reports have said “is more serious.”
Investigators have kept a tight lid on the other case.
Second suspect grilled
Police confirmed they have interrogated a second suspect, whose identity was not revealed.
Mr. Netanyahu (67) tried to play down the development telling his critics, “don’t celebrate yet,” hours before he was to be questioned earlier on Monday.
“Nothing will come [of the probe] and you will continue to spew out hot air,” the Prime Minister said mockingly.
Say he got gifts legally
In a three-hour interrogation session with police on Monday, the Israeli premier admitted that he had received gifts from businessmen, but insisted they were entirely legal, his lawyer said.
Hebrew media reported that police are investigating suspicions that Mr. Netanyahu and his wife Sara illicitly accepted cigars worth hundreds of thousands of shekels and champagne from American-Israeli Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan.
Mr. Milchan, famous for his films ‘Fight Club’ and ‘Pretty Woman,’ is close to the Netanyahu family.
Channel 2 news reported last evening that Mr. Netanyahu received the cigars from Mr. Milchan over the last 7-8 years.
Sara reportedly received bottles of pink champagne worth hundreds of shekels apiece during that period.
A cigar buff
Mr. Netanyahu is known as a connoisseur of fine cigars and the channel pointed out rumours that he smoked tens of thousands of shekels worth of them each month.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who is overseeing the investigation against Mr. Netanyahu, has said the premier is suspected of “receiving improper benefits from businessmen.”
A statement issued by Mr. Mandelblit earlier this week said that police found enough evidence to support the questioning of the Prime Minister as a “possible criminal suspect.”
The statement chronicled the inquiry but did not provide details of the nature of suspicions in the graft case.
The police has been examining “a long list of claims” against the premier since July, Mr. Mandelblit said.
Witnesses interrogated
The Israeli police are said to have interrogated witnesses abroad as well as in Israel about the graft case against Mr. Netanyahu and his family.
Ron Lauder, a Jewish American businessman and an old friend of Mr. Netanyahu, was one such witness.
Mr. Lauder confirmed to police that he had given Mr. Netanyahu various gifts, including a suit, and that he had also financed a trip abroad for the Prime Minister’s son, Yair.
Police believe that the value of the gifts Mr. Lauder gave Mr. Netanyahu is greater than what he admitted and that they were not given in friendship but in hopes of gaining some benefit.
But he is in denial
Mr. Netanyahu has strongly denied all allegations against him.
“All previous so-called affairs have proved baseless and so will it be with the allegations now published in the media. They won’t come to anything, because there isn’t anything,” he earlier said.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is serving a jail term on charges of graft. Mr. Netanyahu had succeeded Mr. Olmert in 2009 after he resigned when a series of graft charges were brought against him.
