BICOM

Israel’s former-foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman was cross-examined by prosecutors for seven hours yesterday as he defended himself against charges of fraud and breach of trust.

Lieberman, who remains an MK and head of the Yisrael Beitenu party, is accused of failing to disclose the receipt of illicit information relating to separate allegations against him, from Israel’s former ambassador to Belarus, Zeev Ben Aryeh. It is alleged that Lieberman then pushed through the appointment of Ben Aryeh as the envoy to Latvia as a reward for his actions. Should Lieberman be found guilty of charges deemed to carry moral turpitude or handed a prison sentence of three months or longer, he will be barred from running for Knesset or serving as a government minister for seven years.

Yesterday, in a Jerusalem magistrate’s court, Lieberman admitted having received a document from Ben Aryeh labelled “legal investigation, Israel, Belarus,” but had immediately thrown it away. He said that “The whole incident was just a few minutes.” When asked by the judge whether he should have reported the incident to the Foreign Ministry’s appointments committee, Lieberman answered “possibly. That’s hindsight. In my terms, I acted reasonably.”

Lieberman was also questioned about the testimony already given by his long-time deputy minister Danny Ayalon, who was dramatically omitted by Lieberman from the Yisrael Beitenu list of Knesset candidates for January’s election. Ayalon told the court earlier this month that Lieberman had told him explicitly that Ben Aryeh must be appointed as ambassador to Latvia. Lieberman yesterday described Ayalon as someone who was not closely trusted and “sometimes you don’t know if he lives on a different planet.”

Speaking to Army Radio, Ayalon commented yesterday, “Lieberman is fighting for his political career. As for the truth, I leave that to the judges.” A verdict in the case is expected in July.