Police ask Knesset not to discuss alleged Kadima corruption

Police send letter to Knesset legal adviser urging him to cancel meeting due to ongoing police investigation into matter.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
MK Tzipi Livni (Kadima) 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
MK Tzipi Livni (Kadima) 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
The Knesset State Control Committee canceled a planned hearing on alleged corruption in Kadima that was supposed to take place this week due to a request from the police, Knesset sources revealed Monday.
Coalition Chairman Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) and the other heads of the factions in the coalition decided last week to require the committee to deal with allegations of financial impropriety made by Kadima Treasurer Itzik Hadad.
Among the charges made by Hadad was that Kadima paid large sums to a private investigator to follow around Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ahead of the last election.
But the police sent a letter to Knesset legal adviser Eyal Yinon, urging him to cancel the meeting due to an ongoing police investigation into the matter.
“Holding such a hearing would enable parties in the case to coordinate their version of events, and therefore it is liable to harm the investigation,” police legal adviser Eilat Elyashar wrote Yinon.
Elkin agreed to cancel the hearing at the request of Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin.
“I certainly won’t stand in the way of a police investigation of corruption in Kadima, so as of now, the hearing is frozen,” Elkin said.