Israeli police recommend indictment against PM Netanyahu

Israeli police have recommended that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted on counts of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in one of three investigations against him.

Evidence was also found against Netanyahu's wife Sara, police said in a statement released early Sunday.

Netanyahu rejected the allegations and expressed confidence that the authorities would reach the conclusion that "there is nothing," a line he has often repeated in relation to the investigations against him.

The recommendations have "no legal standing," he added.

Police had already recommended that Netanyahu be charged with corruption in two other cases. The decision to bring charges against him will be taken by the attorney general.

The latest indictment recommendation was made in reference to Case 4000, a telecom corruption investigation that centres on deals over alleged regulations worth hundreds of millions of dollars provided to the Bezeq telecom company in exchange for positive news coverage of Netanyahu in Walla News, a subsidiary of Bezeq.

Shaul Elovitch, the owner of Walla News and controlling shareholder and former chairman of Bezeq, is suspected of having coordinated the coverage. The police said they have substantial evidence to recommend an indictment against Elovitch.

The investigation has ensnared Netanyahu's former media adviser Nir Hefetz and former director general of the Communications Ministry Shlomo Filber. Both Hefetz and Filber have signed state's witness agreements and provided evidence to police in the probe.

The police investigation found that Netanyahu advanced Elovitch's interests in return for positive reporting on the Walla News website.

The police gathered evidence indicating that "between 2012 and 2017, the prime minister and his associates blatantly and continuously, sometimes even on a daily basis, interfered with content published on the Walla News website."

They also allegedly sought to influence the appointment of senior editors and reporters for the news outlet via their relationships with Elovitch and his wife Iris.

Police found sufficient evidence against Sara Netanyahu to recommend charges of bribery, fraud, breach of trust and the disruption of investigative and judicial proceedings.

They also recommended indictments against Elovitch, his wife Iris, his son Or and three other suspects.