After months of investigation, the police have recommended that charges be leveled against Interior Minister Arye Deri on seven counts of malfeasance, according to media reports.
The charges presented to the state prosecutor relate to allegations that Deri illegally channeled government funds to institutions affiliated with his Shas party, the reports said.
They said four other files were closed for lack of evidence but the investigation into related matters was continuing.
Deri’s reaction was to demand publicly Sunday that Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir order the police to stop repeated leaks to the news media.
“I demand the prime minister put an end to it,” Deri declared.
According to the 31-year-old minister, Israel’s youngest Cabinet member, the police instigated the leaks to divert attention from criticism that they used excessive force to quell the rioting Oct. 8 on the Temple Mount, in which 21 Arabs were fatally shot and some 150 wounded.
But the police involved in the Temple Mount incident, now the subject of a special government inquiry, were the paramilitary border police. Deri and his associates have been under the scrutiny of the regular police.
According to the media, the police are still examining charges that the minister and his aides were involved in illegal wiretapping and illegal real estate transactions in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborrhood where Deri lives with his wife, Yaffa, and their four children.
Deri, who has been questioned by police several times, denies any wrongdoing.
Other officials of Shas who have been interrogated refused to cooperate with the investigation. Some have been held in custody.
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