TEL AVIV, 23 JAN – In Israel, the government with a large majority has approved the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the past purchase of submarines and ships from Germany, considered one of the largest cases of corruption in the country. The story is also known in the courts as ‘Case 3000’, for which former Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, who has always pleaded innocent and who has so far had no legal involvement, was also brought up. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett abstained in the vote, while he voted against Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked: both of the same ‘Yamina’ party, which before the new government was close to Likud. The commission of inquiry into the affair – for which demonstrators demonstrated for months in front of Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem when he was prime minister – was strongly supported by the foreign minister, Yair Lapid, and by the defense minister, Benny Gantz, who have made a theme of the last election campaign. The Commission will have to investigate the procedures that led to the purchase from ThyssenKrupp of 3 submarines, 4 defense vessels and 2 anti-submarine vessels between 2009 and 2016. So far, numerous people close to Netanyahu have already been investigated for this. (HANDLE).
(ANSA)
