JERUSALEM: Israeli police interrogated the country’s new hard-line foreign minister for the second straight day yesterday in an ongoing bribery investigation that could make his tenure short-lived.
Two days after taking office as Israel’s new foreign minister, Lieberman was dramatically hauled in by police on Thursday and questioned for more than seven hours over graft allegations.
When news broke of his interrogation, the head of the ultra-nationalist Israel Beiteinu party had already created shockwaves in Israel and around the world by taking a hard line toward the peace process with the Palestinians.
Lieberman, who only began work in earnest on Wednesday, was quizzed by investigators from the fraud department “on suspicion of corruption, fraud, money laundering and breach of trust,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Rosenfeld said Avigdor Lieberman was yesterday questioned for five hours about an investigation involving suspicions of receiving bribes, money laundering and breach of trust. Lieberman’s lawyer and daughter have also been questioned in the case. Rosenfeld said Lieberman will be questioned again soon.
Police also suspect Lieberman of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes between 2001 and 2004, while serving as national infrastructures minister and as transportation minister, allegedly receiving the funds from businessmen Martin Schlaff and Michael Chernoy.
Police suspect some of the funds may have passed through a consultancy firm owned by Lieberman’s daughter, as well as a company owned by Lieberman himself. Lieberman is also suspected of running personal business affairs while holding a ministerial post.
Police sources said that Lieberman may be indicted within a few months. Lieberman’s office said in a statement that “this is the same investigation which has been going on for 13 years.
If indicted, Lieberman will likely have to step down from his post. Lieberman denies any wrongdoing and says the charges are politically motivated.
One of Israel’s most polarizing politicians, Lieberman became foreign minister this week. In his first speech, he immediately sparked an international uproar by saying he opposed concessions in exchange for peace and rejecting peace talks initiated by the former government. Lieberman has already raised concerns around the world with statements seen as racist and his opposition to US-backed peace talks over the past year.
Lieberman has had trouble with the law before. Police have questioned him several times throughout his decade-long political career, though none of the allegations has stuck.
Earlier this year, Lieberman’s daughter, his lawyer and five other confidants were detained in the current bribery investigation, in which Lieberman is accused of funneling illicit funds through fictitious accounts under the names of his daughter and lawyer.
