ISRAELI POLICE have recommended indicting Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman on charges of bribery, fraud, money laundering, witness harassment and obstruction of justice.
The recommendations have been handed to the attorney general, who is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether to indict the controversial minister.
The police suspect that Mr Lieberman illegally transferred about €2 million via several companies, some operated by his daughter, when he served as a minister in previous governments.
Mr Lieberman (50), a heavily built former bouncer who speaks Hebrew with a thick Russian accent, immigrated to Israel from Moldova in 1978.
His right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) is the second-largest party in the government led by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, gaining equal support from veteran Israelis and the million-strong community of Russian immigrants, who were attracted by Mr Lieberman’s plain-speaking anti-Arab rhetoric.
On taking office as foreign minister earlier this year, Mr Lieberman immediately declared that Israel was not bound by the Annapolis peace process launched by former US president George Bush in 2007, which was followed by a year of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
Mr Lieberman responded to the recommendations yesterday by accusing the police of conducting a campaign of political persecution against him for the past 13 years. “As my political strength and the strength of Yisrael Beiteinu rise, the campaign of persecution also intensifies,” he said.
Mr Lieberman said if the police had a case, the investigation would not have dragged on for so long. He said police recommendations in the past to prosecute senior politicians often ended without a trial.
Speculation was rife yesterday over Yisrael Beiteinu’s future in the governing coalition if the attorney general decides to indict Mr Lieberman. It is not clear if another representative of Yisrael Beiteinu will take over as foreign minister if he is forced to step down, or if the party will remain in the coalition.
Tzipi Livni, leader of the centrist Kadima, has hinted that her party, which won more seats than any other in the February elections, may be open to overtures to join a coalition without Yisrael Beiteinu. Such a scenario was made more likely following Mr Netanyahu’s endorsement of a Palestinian state in June.