(JTA) — Former employees of Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said he regularly escapes his security detail to get drunk at strip clubs.
Israel’s Channel 2 this week broadcast interviews with five of Misezhnikov’s former bodyguards, who said the minister drinks “until he doesn’t know where he is.”
“Sometimes he would get so drunk he would lose his balance," said one guard. "Some security guards would prop him up, but others refused.”
The guards said the minister also repeatedly violates security protocol by heading out on his own.
One security guard said Misezhnikov’s partying has led him to cancel official meetings.
Misezhnikov’s office denied the report, saying it was based on “fired employees trying to get revenge through defamation and lies," and that the minister’s security detail follows the directives imposed on all government ministers.
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