Liberman: Corruption probe against Yisrael Beytenu timed to sink party's election chances

Foreign minister lashed out at investigators on Sunday for their "deliberately timed and planned" probe against his party.

By HERB KEINON
Avigdor Liberman. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Avigdor Liberman.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The high profile investigation of numerous Yisrael Beitenu functionaries is a “planned and well timed” operation orchestrated to take place right in the middle of the election campaign, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman charged on Sunday.
Liberman, the head of Yisrael Beitenu, made his comment to reporters before the weekly cabinet meeting. He said the timing of the arrests and questioning of leading party functionaries precisely now raised many questions. He said that there would not coincidentally be additional arrests, accompanied by more leaks, until the very end of the campaign.
Citing a recent requests from the Jerusalem prosecutor's office to the Jerusalem Labor Court to put off until after the elections a lawsuit involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's former housekeeper Manny Naftali, Liberman wondered why the same principle – the need to be very sensitive in dealing with legal proceedings during an election campaign – did not apply to his party as well.
“On the contrary, when it comes to Yisrael Beitenu there is a pressure to speed up and widen the investigation [during the campaign],” he said,. “I know and respect State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan, and I hope to hear a satisfactory explanation.”
Mentioning by name two people under investigation, Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirschenbaum's chief of staff David Godovsky, and Tamar Regional Council head Dov Litvinoff, Liberman asked what was the urgency to arrest and investigate them now.
“Has David Godovsky suddenly become a ticking time-bomb, was Dov Litvinoff about to sell Israel's airplane secrets to the Iranians?” he asked.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel issued a statement in response to Liberman's comments saying it was “shameful” that instead of sharply condemning the grave allegations against leading functionaries in his party, Liberman lashed out against the law enforcement apparatus.
“There is no good time for corruption or the the war against it which has to be continuous and determined,” the statement said. “It is good that law enforcement officials did not let early elections prevent the enforcement of the law.”