By DPA,
Tel Aviv: Capping a long investigation, Israel police recommended Sunday that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman be indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, and obstruction of justice.
Lieberman is suspected of having received hundreds of thousands of US dollars, possibly as bribes from foreign businessmen, while serving as a lawmaker in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
Under Israeli law, legislators are not allowed to accept payments beyond their Knesset salary.
The money was allegedly channelled to him via Cyprus, via close associates and via a fake consulting company founded under his daughter’s name when she reached the age of 21.
A statement issued by Lieberman’s office after the police announcement said that there was no “real” reason to open an investigation against the minister, and noted that “if there was a basis for the suspicions, the investigation would not have lasted for over a decade”.
The statement also said that as Lieberman’s political fortunes, and that of his “Ysirael Beteinu” party rose, so the attempts to expel him from the political arena intensified.
State Attorney Moshe Lador will decide in the coming days whether to follow the police recommendation and indict the minister.
Lieberman, 50 and born in Moldova, is the leader of the ultra-right Yisrael Beiteinu faction, the largest coalition partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party.