Top criminal suspected of bribing hospital chief

Police were investigating Thursday that Asi Abutbul, a member of the criminal underworld family in Netanya, bribed heads of the Accident and Emergency Unit in Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital in exchange for appointments at the hospital and other medical benefits while he was in custody. A spokesmen for the police's Serious and International Crimes Unit confirmed that Abutbul and the Ichilov official were being investigated but that "apart from that, we cannot elaborate for the moment," Israel Radio reported.