Netanyahu Questioned Over Three Corruption Cases

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a suspect in two cases being investigated. Photograph: Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a suspect in two cases being investigated. Photograph: Reuters
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Netanyahu Questioned Over Three Corruption Cases

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a suspect in two cases being investigated. Photograph: Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a suspect in two cases being investigated. Photograph: Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interrogated by the Israeli police in corruption-related matters -- investigations majorly focused on cases known as 1000 and 2000.

The police waited for the return of Netanyahu from London in order to investigate him.

In case 1000, police suspect that Netanyahu and his wife received bribes including a cigar and champagne worth ten thousand dollars from businessmen to facilitate their commercial activities.

As for case 2000, it is related to a barter between Netanyahu and Yedioth Ahronoth on ceasing the work of a competitor newspaper, and Yedioth Ahronoth would in return provide a better coverage.

The case of submarines holds the name of “case 3000” – a corruption deal to purchase navy vehicles from Germany and it is expected to lead to a list of hight-rank suspects.

The police will refer investigation results to the Israeli government Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit who recommended investigating Netanyahu for the fifth time. They announced in a document presented to the court last August that Netanyahu is a suspect of receiving bribes and betraying trust.

However, Netanyahu's office denied this and accused opposing parties of attempts to put him out for political motives.

In a step that seems a retaliation, Israeli legislators close to Netanyahu caused chaos as they announced their will to demand a salary raise for Netanyahu and a salary drop for head of Israeli police Roni Alsheikh who insists on interrogating Netanyahu.

Analysts and politicians interpreted the step as another initiative to raise a debate with Alsheikh, in light of the probe with Netanyahu. Likud deputies criticized the initiative, describing it as unacceptable.



Expelled S.Africa Envoy to US Back Home 'With No Regrets'

Expelled South Africa Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool speaks to supporters following his arrival at Cape Town International Airport in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)
Expelled South Africa Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool speaks to supporters following his arrival at Cape Town International Airport in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)
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Expelled S.Africa Envoy to US Back Home 'With No Regrets'

Expelled South Africa Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool speaks to supporters following his arrival at Cape Town International Airport in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)
Expelled South Africa Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool speaks to supporters following his arrival at Cape Town International Airport in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)

The South African ambassador who was expelled from the United States in a row with President Donald Trump's government arrived home on Sunday to a raucous welcome and struck a defiant tone over the decision.

Ties between Washington and Pretoria have slumped since Trump cut financial aid to South Africa over what he alleges is its anti-white land policy, its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and other foreign policy clashes.

"It was not our choice to come home, but we come home with no regrets," expelled ambassador Ebrahim Rasool said in Cape Town after he was ousted from Washington on accusations of being "a race-baiting politician" who hates Trump.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week Rasool was expelled after he described Trump's Make America Great Again movement as a supremacist reaction to diversity in the United States.

Rasool was greeted with cheers and applause from hundreds of placard-waving supporters mostly clad in the green and yellow of the ruling African National Congress party at Cape Town International Airport, AFP reported.

"I want to say that we would have liked to come back with a welcome like this if we could report to you that we had turned away the lies of a white genocide in South Africa, but we did not succeed in America with that," he said with a megaphone after a more than 30-hour trip via Qatari capital Doha.

The former anti-apartheid campaigner defended his remarks about Trump's policies, saying he had intended to analyze a political phenomenon and warn South Africans that the "old way of doing business with the US was not going to work".

"Our language must change not only to transactionality but also a language that can penetrate a group that has clearly identified a fringe white community in South Africa as their constituency," he said.

"The fact that what I said caught the attention of the president and the secretary of state and moved them enough to declare me persona non grata says that the message went to the highest office," he added.