Ex-police chief: Netanyahu should resign before he is convicted
Alshiech said that if Netanyahu serves as Prime Minister until the end of his trial, Israel "will pay an impossible price."
By YONAH JEREMY BOBPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wearing a mask, stands inside the courtroom as his corruption trial opens at the Jerusalem District Court May 24, 2020.(photo credit: REUTERS/RONEN ZEVULUN)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely be convicted in his corruption trial, though there is still hope that he will resign and cut a deal before that point, former Israel Police commissioner Roni Alsheich told Yediot Aharonot on Wednesday.In his first major interview since stepping down in December 2018, Alsheich was asked if Netanyahu would be convicted. He responded: “All of this assumes he will be actually tried in court. Anything can happen. Maybe there will be immunity, maybe there will be a government, I don’t know. If he is brought to trial, I believe he will be convicted. If we did not think the chances of conviction were extremely high, no one would have taken a gamble.”Alsheich added that he hopes the saga will end before the point of conviction, meaning with a plea bargain.“I hope this will all resolve itself before that point. I hope for him and I hope for us. At least he should not continue to serve as prime minister all the way until the end of the trial, because this state will pay an impossible price,” he said.Netanyahu’s trial started on May 24, with a second hearing in July.However, the “heart” of the trial, with calling witnesses, still does not start until January.In the interview, Alsheich doubled down on allegations that “powerful forces” were performing surveillance and collecting information about the police investigators on the Netanyahu cases.Despite the fact that no criminal probe ever was opened into this, he said, “There were facts – investigators working on these cases were harassed, including their environments, their neighbors, their family. Three of them. Relatively senior officials. People who were questioning the prime minister and who were also involved in decision-making.”Pressed to name explicitly who was behind this alleged harassment, he said, “We knew [who] and I still know. But since I don’t know what the police are doing with this today, obviously I do not want to say anything.”There is also an ongoing probe into various Netanyahu aides accused of harassing former prime minister’s aide turned state witness Shlomo Filber.Alsheich was considered close to Netanyahu and was handpicked for his presumed loyalty, until the former police chief raised allegations implying that Netanyahu supporters were harassing police and until he recommended indicting the prime minister.Next, Alsheich was asked if he knew about alleged police abuses to convert some former top Netanyahu aides into state witnesses, and he said that these were tactical decisions made by mid-level officers below him.However, even as he said he did not know exactly what was done with the state’s witnesses, he said his understanding was that allegations of police wrongdoing in the media have been superficial and lacked an understanding of a range of permitted police “trickery” for probes.
