Former Israel Police Commissioner Ronnie Alsheikh said he believes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be indicted on bribery charges.
At an annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Sunday, Alsheikh said that "from a certain standpoint, the credibility of the police depends on the investigation into Netanyahu." He said he found it difficult to believe an indictment would be filed on charges that did not involve bribery.
"The facts are before us," he said, "and I don't think there will be a dispute. In the end, there is someone who needs to make the decision as to under which clause to file an indictment."
Asked whether the police had framed Netanyahu, Alsheikh said, "God forbid. We don't have the ability to set [someone] up. The police don't decide what they do or don't investigate." He said the police cannot open an investigation into a public figure without the attorney general and the State Attorney's Office having first reached a decision on the matter.
At the conference, Alsheikh claimed private investigators had intervened with the work of the police in investigating the cases pertaining to the prime minister.
He said that about a year before his interview with investigative television news magazine "Uvda," "Private investigators were snooping around police investigators, and I realized that it was an interfering [in the investigation]. We knew who they were and what they were doing. In accordance with the attorney general, we decided to go out in front of the cameras, I went out – and it stopped. They filed a High Court petition against us, and it [the court] ruled that we acted impeccably."
Asked whether attempts had been made to intimidate him, Alsheikh said, "There were threats, and I don't want to comment any further."
Alsheikh was also asked whether he had leaked information about the investigation, to which he replied, "I never leaked. The journalists know that the police don't leak from these investigations."
He further said he supports investigations into leaks and is even willing to be investigated himself.
In response to Alsheikh's remarks, the Likud party issued a statement saying, "Alsheikh has again repeated the false insinuation that the prime minister sent private investigators [to work] against the police investigations. How can one expect a fair process when the [former] police chief believes such a bizarre conspiracy? It is no wonder Alsheikh is joining the Left in pressuring the attorney general to file an indictment against Prime Minister Netanyahu."
