Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced on Friday that he intends to file criminal charges against Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, the leader of the ultra-direct English party, for tax crimes, pending to listen.
Deri, who was convicted and jailed for bribery decades ago, was initially under suspicion of the same charge when the current investigation began five years ago, but Mandelblit has come to an end accusing him of the minor offenses of reporting income to tax authorities on two occasions and additional tax offenses while selling Jerusalem places to his brother, Shlomo.
Shlomo will also be charged with tax crimes pending hearing.
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Deri was also suspected of bribery, fraud and breach of trust for suing hundreds of thousands of shekels in state money to NGOs run by members of his family, but those charges were waived.
Aryeh Deri’s lawyer, Navot Tel-Zur, said in a statement that “after more than five years of difficult investigation, the attorney general has rules at the outset to determine that he is clearing Aryeh Deri of suspicion. government corruption. ”
Deri himself wrote on Twitter: “After more than five difficult years of investigation, I thank God for the decision to dismiss all false allegations, and I am confident that the tax offense will be closed. at the hearing, after all the facts have been laid before the attorney general. ”
A date for the pre-conviction hearing has yet to be set.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit will speak at an event at Ilan Bar University, March 4, 2020. (Flash90)
In November 2018, the police proposed filing charges against the leader of the English ultra-Orthodox party on suspicion of fraud, breach of trust, obstruction of court proceedings, money laundering and tax crimes involving millions of shekels. . Some of the events happened while Deri was a cabinet minister.
In 2019, state lawyer Shai Nitzan similarly proposed deri taxes.
Deri served 22 months in prison from 2000 to 2002, after being convicted of bribery as an interior minister in the 1990s.
He regained the leadership of his English party shortly before the 2015 Knesset elections, replacing Eli Yishai. He returned to his Interior Ministry post in 2016, after a court argued that his previous conviction did not remove him from office.
Last month, Channel 12 reported that Deri had secured top jobs for his close family in the World Zionist Organization and Jewish National Fund.
Deri’s son, Yaakov Deri, has been named head of WZO’s division for resource and heritage construction, the network said, while his brother Shlomo, vice president of the Jewish National Fund a few years ago, was promoted to co-chair of the group.
According to Channel 12, Deri ‘s relatives in senior positions caused him to fall within the ranks of England, with some questioning why family members of the party leader are getting such lucrative positions.