Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit informed the High Court yesterday that the loan received by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from his cousin, the American businessman Natan Milikovsky, in the amount of $ 300,000, is a prohibited gift.
This is a continuation of the permit committee’s decision, under pressure from the ombudsman, that Netanyahu must return the money he received from his cousin. To him earlier.
“According to the Attorney General’s method, given the totality and economic relationship described above, and the different nature of the relationship from that which was known to us, and certain doubts that have arisen in relation to the versions, it can no longer be said that the initial presumption is hidden according to Respondent 1 (Netanyahu 11). He received the money as far as he is a public employee, “the High Court adviser said in a statement. The outgoing effect of this conclusion is that the Permits Committee is in any case not authorized to allow their receipt (because this is a prohibited gift, 11). It will be clarified that the committee, when required to do so, also acted on the basis of the previous working assumption, according to which this is not a prohibited gift. “
Regarding the demand in the petitions to open a criminal investigation, the ombudsman said: “Considering that we are dealing with an issue that is still in litigation, including the question of the normative framework that weakens the receipt of funds, it seems that in the circumstances, and for the sake of good order, the examination should be exhausted at this stage.” .
The Likud is angry
The ombudsman’s decision provoked angry reactions in the Likud, where Mandelblit was accused of trying to interfere in the upcoming elections. MK Shlomo Kari hastened to tweet the following harsh words: “The legal liar strikes again. If there are still few left in Israel who still believe in the legal liar’s integrity To the government, today he undermined the foundations of the faith … Today, the ombudsman showed everyone that for his sole purpose: overthrowing Netanyahu, he has no problem opposing his own opinion as well … Too bad he did not wait two weeks for a trial – shame! “.
Tailor-made indictment
Other Likud sources also claimed that “in the previous elections, Mandelblit filed a tailor-made indictment against the prime minister, and in this election he plucks his legal position while harming the prime minister’s defense, just because the cases he seized courses against him. There is no limit to persecution and the hunt to overthrow a prime minister. Stronger than the right. “