Long-Time Netanyahu Confident to Testify for State in Bezeq Graft Investigation

Jerusalem, 21 February, 2018 (TPS) -- Shlomo (Momo) Filber, the suspended director general of the communications ministry and a long-time confidant of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who was arrested earlier this week in connection with allegations of graft connected with the Bezeq telecommunications conglomerate, agreed Tuesday night to become a state’s witness.

Filber is expected to begin providing testimony Wednesday to police detectives about Netanyahu’s ties with business people and media moguls during the period that Netanyahu served as communications minister from 2014-2017. In exchange, Filber is expected to avoid jail time, and will apparently not be fined.

Filber was suspended from the position of director general of the communications ministry last August after he emerged as a suspect in the developing investigation, now known as Case 4000. He is suspected of breach of public trust, deception and fraud for his alleged role in pushing the business interests of Bezeq CEO Shaul Elovitch in contrast to the public interest. He was questioned under caution on August 6 and barred from initiating direct or indirect contact with ministry employees.

Responding to the new round of arrests of long-standing aides, Netanyahu repeated his stance last night (before it was announced that Filber had agreed to testify for the state) that Case 4000, like Cases 1000 and 2000, would ultimately amount to nothing because no wrongdoing was committed. In a video released by the prime minister’s office and posted on social media, Netanyahu quoted the Torah account of the Jews’ slavery in ancient Egypt, saying  “the more the (Egyptians) beat them (the ancient Israelites), the more they flourished” (Ex. 1:12) and cited a poll commissioned by the Israel Hayom freesheet that predicted the Likud would win 34 Knesset seats, a gain of four seats, were national elections held today.