The police interrogated former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director Nadav Argaman on Thursday, following a complaint submitted against him by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Argaman was reportedly interrogated on suspicion of extortion and threats he made in an interview with Channel 12 last week.
In the interview, Argaman said he had yet to reveal certain incriminating information about Netanyahu because he wanted “to preserve the significance of the relationship between the head of the Shin Bet and the prime minister.”
There had been reports of a breakdown in communication and trust between Netanyahu and Argaman’s successor, Ronen Bar.
“There is great importance to the intimacy between the head of the Shin Bet and the prime minister, and I don’t think it is right to undermine that intimacy,” Argaman said.
Netanyahu's accusations
“That is why, for now, I am keeping everything that happened behind closed doors between the prime minister and me in this place. It is absolutely clear that I have a great deal of knowledge. I could use it, but I choose not to for the reasons I mentioned.”
Following the interview, Netanyahu said Bar and the Shin Bet were conducting a “campaign of blackmail” against him.
Israel Police Insp.-Gen. Danny Levi on Friday gave orders to examine Argaman’s statements ahead of a potential investigation.
The broader context of Argaman’s threats was to try to defend the judiciary and Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara. Bar is the most recent target for firing of career government officials who are not members of political parties.
According to some commentators, Argaman can simply share conduct that Netanyahu undertook, which could be viewed as illegal, and that threatening to report such conduct cannot be extortion. It might also be a hard sell to bring charges in court against Argaman for trying to protect the judiciary, they said.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.