JERUSALEM (JTA) — Police questioned Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman for allegedly obstructing an investigation against him.
Lieberman was questioned Tuesday for two hours. He is under suspicion of obtaining secret information from Israel’s former ambassador to Belarus regarding the investigation, according to reports.
Lieberman is suspected of laundering millions of shekels through straw companies, including while serving as a public official, and of obstructing the investigation into the money laundering.
In a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, Lieberman’s attorney called for an investigation of the Israel Police over leaked information to the media regarding the corruption probes, Haaretz reported.
Police had asked the former envoy to Belarus, Ze’ev Ben Aryeh, to help in the Lieberman corruption probe by questioning Belarus banks and government officials. Ben Aryeh is accused of turning a copy of the request over to Lieberman in October 2008.
Lieberman is now under suspicion of advancing Ben Aryeh’s position in the Foreign Ministry in exchange for the information. Ben Aryeh is the legal adviser in Lieberman’s office.
