BREAKING NEWS

Safed mayor released to house arrest, suspected of bribery

FEBRUARY 12, 2017 17:31

Safed Mayor Illan Shohat was released to 10 days house arrest by the Haifa Magistrate's Court on Sunday after being arrested on suspicion of bribery, corruption, and tax evasion last Monday.

According to police, Shohat is suspected of receiving bribes totaling tens to hundreds of thousands of shekels from businesspeople seeking to promote their interests.

Shohat, 44, has been the mayor of Safed since 2008 and is being investigated by police in six separate police investigations centering around real estate deals conducted with the Safed Municipality.

Along with Shohat, Gil Adler, 38, the mayor’s personal assistant was released on identical conditions, which also included a prohibition of entering the municipality building for 55 days and a ban on leaving the country for 90 days.

Last week police searched the Safed City Hall and Shohat’s home, seizing a number of documents and materials.

According to police, arrests in the investigation termed Case 1431 resulted from an extensive undercover investigation conducted by the Lahav 433 National Fraud Unit and the Israel Tax Authority, with assistance from the northern District Attorney’s Office.

Shohat is a member of the Yisrael Beytenu Party and won a Knesset seat in 2015, but he declined to take it, opting to remain mayor of Safed.

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