Jerusalem: Urging indictment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in bribery charges related to a corruption case involving Israel’s telecom giant, Israeli police say their investigation has established an evidentiary foundation to charge Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, with accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust. Their recommendations have prompted immediate calls for his resignation.
According to sources confidants of Netanyahu promoted regulations worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the Bezeq telecom company in exchange for positive coverage of the prime minister on Bezeq’s subsidiary news website, Walla.
Earlier police have also recommended indicting Netanyahu on corruption charges in two other cases. One for his involvement in accepting gifts from billionaire friends, and the second for alleged offering of advantageous legislation for a newspaper in return for positive coverage.
However, Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and called the accusations as a witch hunt orchestrated by the media.
Tamar Zandberg, head of the dovish opposition Meretz party and other opposition parties have called for Netanyahu’s resignation.