Zionist Union leader suspected of campaign financing wrongs during 2013 Labor Party primaries; former right hand man already questioned under caution
Suspicions connecting Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog to election financing irregularities have moved forward, with police seeking to question the lawmaker under caution, according to a Monday report.
Sources close to Herzog said the opposition leader, currently on an official visit to Germany, would cooperate fully with the probe, Channel 2 news reported.
At the end of last month, Herzog was named as a second senior Israeli Knesset member suspected of graft, a day after Interior Minister Aryeh Deri — who spent several years in prison for embezzlement — revealed he was again at the center of a major corruption investigation.
Police have sought permission to investigate Herzog from Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, Channel 2 News reported, also revealing that Herzog’s former campaign manager, Shimon Batat, has already been interviewed under caution in connection with campaign funding violations.
There was no immediate reaction to the report from Herzog or Batat.
So far, Mandelblit has ordered a preliminary probe of suspicions that focus on financing for the 2013 Labor Party primaries two and half years ago, in which Herzog beat incumbent Shelly Yachimovich for the Labor party leadership.
The Labor Party is the largest of the two parties that make up the Zionist Union faction in the Knesset.
Being grilled under caution is often a precursor to the opening of a criminal probe into suspicions.
Concerns center on funding connected to a non-profit organization used by Herzog supporters to manage a negative campaign against Yachimovich, Channel 2 News said, adding that testimony has already been collected from individuals, among them known figures from the political world.
Among other things, the case involves the director general of a nursing agency who allegedly invested tens of thousands of shekels over and above the official campaign budget to fund the negative campaign.
o date, the only person convicted and sentenced to a jail term for internal party funding offenses has been Omri Sharon, son of the late prime minister Ariel Sharon.
Former MK Naomi Blumenthal (Likud) was convicted of bribing 15 party activists and central committee members during Likud primaries in December 2003 by inviting them to a Ramat Gan hotel.
In a June 2014 report, former State Comptroller Yosef Shapira determined that Herzog had exceeded the limit on expenses allowed in the Labor Party leadership primaries against Yachimovich but that he had not broken the law.
Accepting Herzog’s explanation that an “innocent accounting mistake” had been made, Shapira decided against any financial sanction against the party leader.
In a newsletter sent to supporters at the end of last week, Herzog said he had received thousands of offers of support which gave him the feeling “that there’s a home and friends who can be relied upon.”
“After publication about the inquiry, I asked to bring the rumor factory to an end, to conclude the investigation on the subject as quickly as possible and to allow me to come and give answers to all the questions in order to put this saga behind us.”
He added: “We cannot accept a phenomenon by which interested parties try to bring up complaints and claims in order to force an investigation every time it seems that coalitions break up or before every election. This is a dangerous phenomenon for a democracy.
Last week, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said talks about bringing Zionist Union into the governing coalition stalled when the suspicions concerning Herzog came to light.
Herzog exercised his right to remain silent when he was investigated in 1999 as cabinet secretary, in connection with alleged campaign funding irregularities on the part of then-prime minister Ehud Barak.
Last week, Mendelblit gave the go-ahead to a police request for a criminal investigation into Deri, the head of the Shas party, over irregularities involving real estate holdings.
As reported by The Times of Israel