BICOM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be questioned by police today about bribery offences in the Bezeq corruption investigation, known as Case 4000.

Case 4000 deals with Netanyahu’s connection to Bezeq’s controlling shareholder, Shaul Elovitch. The case involves allegations that Bezeq received benefits from the Government in return for favourable news coverage of Netanyahu on the Walla news website, which is owned by Elovitch. Shlomo Filber, former advisor to Netanyahu, served as Director-General of the Communications Ministry and is said to have made policy decisions to benefit Bezeq in return for  favourable media coverage. Filber has since signed a plea agreement to act as a state witness in the case. Investigators will decide shortly whether there is enough evidence to recommend charging the Prime Minister for committing fraud and bribery in the case.

Netanyahu is expected to be asked about the material that state witnesses Nir Hefetz and Filber have provided to investigators.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly denied the accusations, insisting all his regulatory decisions affecting Bezeq were in keeping with the recommendations of the ministry’s professional echelons.

On Tuesday, a source told Hadashot television news that the police believe they have sufficient evidence to charge Prime Minister Netanyahu with bribery.

In May, during a speech at the annual Conference of the Israel Bar Association, Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said that, “the investigation into the case [4000] is in its latter stages. Hundreds of testimonies were gathered, some of them from across the sea. Many documents and exhibits were seized.”

Mandelblit will reportedly examine all three investigations against Netanyahu at the same time, which may delay any decision until late 2019. If the Prime Minister were to call early elections later this year it is possible he could be re-elected before the Attorney General has announced his decision whether or not to indict the Prime Minister. Netanyahu biographer Anshel Pfeffer spoke with BICOM CEO James Sorene about Netanyahu’s possible election decisions in this week’s Hadiyun podcast.