Israeli Foreign Minister and Yisrael Beitenu party leader Avigdor Lieberman slammed the police investigation against members of his party suspected of a raft of corruption charges.
On Wednesday, some 30 officials, including Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirshenbaum and former Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, were arrested on suspicion of corruption by detectives from the Lahav 433 serious crimes and anti-corruption unit.
Many of the suspects are members of Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party, which rejected the case as a “witch hunt” aimed at impeding the party’s campaign ahead of the March 2015 election.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Lieberman charged that when it came to Yisrael Beitenu “there are no elections without investigations.”
“Time after time, without exception, ‘anonymous forces’ intervene in each election cycle and [try to] harm Yisrael Beitenu’s right to compete fairly,” he wrote.
Lieberman said he was “convinced of the innocence” of his party members and urged followers not to rush to judgement because “in a democratic society, a person is innocent until proven otherwise.”
He also protested the “attempt to smear the party as a whole,” and said he was convinced it would emerge stronger and more united, as it had after previous corruption cases.
Lieberman himself faced a series of investigations over almost 17 years. The most recent indictment against him was filed in December 2012, just six weeks before the elections of January 2013, forcing him to resign as Foreign Minister. But a year later, in November 2013, he was acquitted of the last set of remaining charges and reinstated as Israel’s Foreign Minister.
This week’s investigation was launched amid suspicions that the officials had “conspired in a calculated manner to advance their personal and public interests and to receive money for personal use, while committing various crimes in a manner that significantly impeded the administration of their areas of governance,” police said in a statement.
Investigators suspect that large sums of money were inappropriately transferred to non-government organizations and various other groups. In return, the organizations allegedly made nepotistic appointments, as well as circulating some of the money back to public service officials in the form of cash payoffs and benefits.
“The covert investigation revealed a calculated method wherein the suspects and their representatives unlawfully transferred, using their powers as public officials, large sums of public funds to [various] bodies and authorities, in exchange for large benefits for them or their associates, including appointments, payments and more,” the police statement said.