Israel's Attorney General wants to bring charges against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for corruption allegations. Avichai Mandelblit told Netanyahu that, the Israeli media reported. However, according to Israeli law, Netanyahu's hearing must first take place before that. In one case, Mandelblit spoke out for a charge of corruption, in two other cases for fraud and infidelity.
On April 9 parliamentary elections will take place in Israel. Netanyahu wants to become prime minister again and has already excluded a resignation even in the case of an indictment. He called the allegations "ridiculous" even before the publication and spoke of an attempt to destroy his political career. The allegations against him would "soon collapse like a house of cards".
The suspicion: expensive gifts from friendly billionaires
The prime minister is suspected of having received expensive gifts from friendly billionaires. Netanyahu is also suspected to have granted as the Secretary of Communications the telecom giant Bezeq legal benefits. In exchange, however, the belonging to the group medium "Walla" have reported positive about him. In addition, he is said to have offered a critical newspaper publisher, in return for positive coverage to weaken the competitive leaf.
When the hearing of Netanyahu should take place was initially unclear. Up to a final decision on an indictment can take up to a year.
It would be the first time in Israel's history that charges have been brought against an incumbent head of government. As opposition leader Netanyahu 2008 had urged the then head of government Ehud Olmert to resign when he was under suspicion of corruption.
The corruption allegations ended Olmert's political career. He resigned in 2008 before an indictment against him, but remained until new elections in the spring of 2009 in office. Following a conviction, Olmert served a 19-month prison term in February 2016, but was released three months earlier.