Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit charged the prime minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, for fraud with aggravated circumstances and breach of public trust in the “Prepared Food Affair,” in an explosive development which shook the country on Thursday.When Leah Rabin was about to be indicted in 1977, then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin resigned from office due to his wife’s scandal.
The expectation is that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not considering such a move, but the indictment damages him politically in an atmosphere in which The Jerusalem Post recently reported that he too is likely to face an indictment announcement in the coming months or in early 2019.
Though the Post had learned about two weeks ago that an indictment would likely be coming down soon, there were continuous efforts to reach a plea bargain right down to the end, which left things up in the air and created an ongoing drama.
Other media had also reported in recent months that the actual indictment could be filed shortly after the Passover holiday in May, but then Netanyahu’s defense lawyers approached Mandelblit with a dramatic offer.
They offered to return some of the funds Netanyahu is accused of obtaining fraudulently and to take public responsibility, as long as she would not be slapped with any kind of criminal record.
Ultimately, despite media reports that a deal might be near, the Post’s sources proved correct that no deal was reached, leading to an indictment. READ MORE
