PM Investigation: Conflicting Reports on Milchan's Testimony

Jerusalem, 8 March, 2017 (TPS) -- Israeli media reports on Wednesday claim that Israeli tycoon Arnon Milchan retracted a significant portion of his original testimony during his second testimony the past week. Accordingly, the new testimony would be much less damning on two main points: the amounts transferred to the family of Netanyahu and the PM’s awareness of said transfers.

Consequently, the police might have to take testimony from Australian James Packer, an option they had discarded because they apparently considered Milchan’s first testimony sufficient. Such a move on the part of Milchan seems to indicate a reluctance to see Netanyahu indicted, an option which has been felt as increasingly likely these past few weeks.

However, Milchan’s spokesperson argues there was not any change to his testimony.

The ‘Case 1000’ deals with allegations that Netanyahu accepted gifts in violation of ethical laws. Netanyahu is accused of having received expensive gifts for himself and his family from powerful businessmen like Milchan and Packer, including allegations that his wife, Sara Netanyahu, had accepted hundreds of thousands of shekels worth of jewels, expensive champagne and other luxury gifts.

On February 8, Netanyahu had claimed he “didn’t know” that his wife had received such gifts and only admitted to knowing about boxes of cigars, given in a the context of a long-standing friendship between the two families. He told investigators that he never checked the value of each cigar or of the accumulated total of the gifts, and insists there was never any talk or inference to a quid pro quo.

According to Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, the Lahav 433 investigation unit is on its last legs of the investigations, and estimates final conclusions to be brought in within the coming weeks.