Israel police recommend indicting PM Netanyahu in third graft probe

JERUSALEM (AFP): Israeli police on Sunday recommended indicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara for bribery and other offences, the third such move against the premier in recent months. 

Netanyahu immediately rejected the accusations, but the three cases against him have led to speculation that they could eventually force the long-serving prime minister to step down. 

The head of the opposition Labour party, Avi Gabbay, renewed his call for Netanyahu to resign after the latest recommendations were released. 

The attorney general will now decide whether to bring indictments in the case, which centres on regulatory benefits allegedly granted to telecommunications firm Bezeq in exchange for positive coverage from a related media company. 

Police in February recommended indicting the prime minister in two other corruption investigations. 

In the findings announced Sunday, police said there was evidence to charge Netanyahu with bribery, fraud, breach of trust and unlawful acceptance. 

They recommended Sara Netanyahu face charges of bribery, fraud, breach of trust and obstruction of justice. 

The premier has repeatedly called the allegations against him in all three cases a plot by his political enemies to force him from office. He argued in a statement that “these recommendations were determined and leaked even before the investigations began.” “I’m sure that in this case the relevant authorities, after examining the issue, will reach the same conclusion: that there was nothing because there is nothing,” he said. 

Netanyahu did not mention the allegations in his comments at the start of a cabinet meeting later in the day. The prime minister has been repeatedly questioned by police in the three corruption investigations. Sunday’s recommendations involved Netanyahu, Bezeq and the firm’s largest shareholder, Shaul Elovitch. 

Netanyahu is accused of seeking favourable coverage from another Elovitch company, the Walla news site, in exchange for policies that could have benefited the mogul’s business interests.