BICOM

The Tel Aviv District Court extended the time in custody of Bezeq majority shareholder Shaul Elovitch and former senior advisor to the Netanyahu family Nir Hefetz until Sunday, following their arrests last week in connection with Case 4000.

The court also extended the time in custody of strategy advisor Eli Kamir until Wednesday. Elovitch’s wife Iris, Bezeq CEO Stella Handler and Bezeq senior official Amikam Shorer were all released.

Case 4000 is centred on 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, another confidant of Netanyahu’s who served as Director-General of the Communications Ministry, is alleged to have made policy decisions to benefit Bezeq. Filber has since signed a plea agreement to act as a state witness in the case. Hefetz is suspected of bribery and obstruction of justice, while Elovitch is suspected of receiving approximately NIS 1bn in bribes.

Both Elovitch and Hefetz appealed against their continued detention arguing that the procedure was flawed in light of recently revealed text messages between Judge Ronit Poznanski-Katz and the lawyer representing the Israel Securities Authority, Eran Shacham-Shavit. The texts suggest the two were coordinating their positions ahead of the remand hearings.

Following these revelations, Judge Ala Masarwa, has replaced Poznanski-Katz, who will not conduct any further in-court hearings pending the completion of a disciplinary process. The Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has ordered a disciplinary investigation into Shaham-Shavit, who was also suspended.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has denied the allegations against him in Case 4000, saying that all his decisions concerning Bezeq had been made on substantive grounds. He is due to be questioned about the case on Friday, but may ask for a postponement.