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Sara Netanyahu could face criminal trial
Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israel’s Prime Minister, was charged yesterday with fraud and breach of trust for allegedly using public funds to pay for catered meals for family and private guests at their official residence. If convicted, she could face a maximum sentence of five years.
The indictment filed by Israeli Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit said that Netanyahu, along with Ezra Saidoff, a former Deputy Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), fraudulently obtained more than £75000 to pay for hundreds of meals supplied by top restaurants between 2010 and 2013, bypassing regulations prohibiting the practice if a chef is employed at the Prime Minister’s residence. According to the indictment, Netanyahu falsely claimed there was no chef employed by the residence at the time.
The indictment also covers the employment of an electrician, who had been rejected by the PMO as unsuitable due to his close connection to the Netanyahu family. Saidoff is accused of falsifying documents that were used to circumvent the PMO’s original order that the electrician could not be employed at the residence.
Netanyahu’s lawyers were reportedly seeking to renew talks with prosecutors to settle the case out of court. Attorney-General Mandelblit apparently rejected a proposal from Netanyahu’s attorneys last month in which she would plead guilty to the charges and repay part of the £75000 in return for the the investigation being closed without an indictment.
The charges are the result of years of investigations into her official expenses. They come after Nir Hefetz, a former advisor to the Netanyahus turned state’s witness for the investigation into the Prime Minister, provided testimony to prosecutors about her alleged misappropriation of public funds for personal use.
The Prime Minister is not directly implicated in the case and has called the charges against his wife absurd and unfounded. He also faces several police investigations into alleged corruption, and denies any wrongdoing, insisting the investigations “will end in nothing”.