Ashkelon Mayor Itamar Shimoni will likely be indicted for bribery, fraud, money-laundering and breach of trust, but not rape, the Tel Aviv Economic Crimes Unit announced on Monday.
Shimoni is suspected of taking over NIS 1 million in bribes to help himself pay off two women to drop threats of legal action against him for taking advantage of them sexually when they previously worked under him.
Originally, there were reports that he would be indicted for rape also based on police recommendations, but those allegations were not mentioned in the official statement with observers suggesting that meant that at most he had committed low-level sexual harassment and the focus would be on financial crimes.
Some potential sexual crimes were also reportedly ruled out as being beyond the statute of limitations.
