Netanyahu questioning unlikely this week

Before Netanyahu will be questioned, multiple former staffers of the prime minister will face questioning in an attempt to strengthen the case against him.

By GIL HOFFMAN
Updated: JULY 18, 2016 01:05
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Knesset cabinet meeting (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Knesset cabinet meeting
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Law enforcement authorities denied a report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be questioned under caution in upcoming days, according to a report Sunday on Channel 10.
Ma’ariv reported that Netanyahu would be questioned by the end of the five-day house arrest of his former chief of staff Ari Harow, which is set to end Tuesday but could be extended.
But law enforcement authorities called that report “baseless.”
Before Netanyahu will be questioned, multiple former staffers of the prime minister will face questioning in an attempt to strengthen the case against him before he faces the national fraud squad, Lahav 443. Harow is also expected to be questioned again Monday, after enduring 15 hours of questioning immediately upon his return from Madrid Thursday.
The questioning of Harow reportedly focused on whether he used his job as Netanyahu’s chief of staff to advance his business which he sold, 3H Global, and whether Netanyahu benefited financially from either the donations he obtained from him or from Harow’s business. The investigators are also trying to figure out whether the sale of 3H Global was a fictitious, and who cashed the checks received in the sale. The company’s stated sale price was $3m. according to Haaretz, but Harow allegedly did not receive the entire sum.
It would be the decision of Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit to order an investigation of the prime minister. Mandelblit is said to favor expediting probes against politicians and preventing them from being dragged out over many years as happened under his predecessors.
But Netanyahu’s investigation is expected to be a lengthy one, and may involve FBI cooperation that could extend it further.
Sources close to Netanyahu continued to downplay the reports Sunday, saying that “the probes will result in nothing, because there isn’t anything.”