Police tapped suspects' phones following Walla! CEO's testimony in Case 4000
Walla! News CEO Ilan Yeshua provided ISA investigators with eight detailed testimonies since first being contacted in December 2017, Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth learn; following his testimony, investigators received permission from the attorney general to launch an undercover investigation in the Bezeq affair, including wiretapping.
Yeshua's testimonies included recordings, documents and other evidence linking Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder of the Bezeq telecommunications company to an alleged quid pro quo relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Following Yeshua's testimonies, IAS and police investigations received permission from Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to launch an undercover investigation, which included wiretapping.
Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth revealed last week that Yeshua had provided the "golden evidence" in the investigation—a recording of Elovitch issuing explicit orders on the favorable coverage that should be given to Netanyahu and his family on the Walla! website.
It has now been revealed that in addition to the recordings provided by Yeshua, the police also have transcripts of phone conversations after eavesdropping on the suspects—Elovitch, Netanyahu's former media advisor Nir Hefetz and Communications Ministry Director-General Shlomo Filber.
In July 2017, in the middle of the investigation into the Bezeq affair, the ISA received intelligence information that the offenses committed by the company are not only related to its financial activity, but also include criminal offenses linked to Prime Minister Netanyahu. The intelligence reports mentioned Yeshua's name as someone who might be able to shed light on the affair.
After being updated on the developments in the investigation, the Israel Police's Lahav 433 Unit asked to receive the material, but the ISA insisted on completing the investigation into the financial offenses and submitting recommendations for indictments before moving on to the bribery offenses.
In December 2017, Yeshua was summoned to the ISA offices for a testimony and began cooperating with the investigators. Keeping the entire affair from his employees at Walla!, Yeshua arrived at the ISA as many as eight times and provided detailed testimonies on the pressure he had been subject to.
"It seemed he had really been waiting to get everything off his chest," says a source in the law enforcement system. Yeshua not only testified, but also provided the investigators with a recording of Elovitch instructing him on the desirable coverage of the Netanyahu family, as well as with documents, email correspondences and articles pointing to the favorable coverage.
As Yeshua began testifying, the material was handed over to the State Attorney's Office and a special police and ISA team was granted permission to launch an undercover investigation, including an unusual permission to wiretap some of the suspects.
Sara Netanyahu's message to Iris Elovitch
"I was in severe personal and professional distress at the end of 2015," Yeshua told the police in his testimony. "I turned to attorney Eyal Rosovsky, who has been accompanying me ever since. Later I started documenting the requests and pressure from Shaul Elovitch and his wife Iris."
Yeshua reportedly told police that Shaul Elovitch "looks nice and smiley, but the Elovitch family is a crime family," Channel 2 News reporter Amnon Abramovich reported on Friday.
"Elovitch said he wanted to make Walla! News a national-right website. That is a lie. At times there were instructions to attack Naftali Bennett, demands to really go after Bennett hard. It was allowed to write things against the right wing and Likud ministers and Lieberman and everyone else. Just not against Bibi, Sara and son Yair," Yeshua said, referring to the prime minister by his nickname.
According to Yeshua, he decided to cut ties with the Elovitch family around the end of 2016. "To limit myself and limit the site, I recruited, on my own, independent and serious journalists: Ya'akov Eilon, Aviram Elad and Oren Nahari," he said. "In 2017, he (Elovitch) tried to have the board of directors dismiss me. He couldn't reveal the true reason (the Netanyahu family). I presented a business and professional plan that convinced the board."
Channel 10 News reported on Friday that police have WhatsApp chats between the prime minister's wife, Sara Netanyahu, and Elovitch's wife Iris, who is also under arrest.
According to the report, the chat transcripts show Mrs. Netanyahu rebuking Mrs. Elovitch because Walla! News editor-in-chief Aviram Elad was not fired after another article she did not like.
"This can't continue like this, I thought we had talked about this. This is going on for too long. Why do I need to read such things on your website? Do something about it," Sara Netanyahu wrote to Iris Elovitch.
The Elovich couple's remand has been extended until Monday.
Nir Hefetz, the Netanyahu family's former media adviser, will also remain under arrest until Monday. He is a suspect in both Case 4000 and in Case 1270, in which he allegedly offered Judge Hila Gerstel the attorney general's position in return for closing a case against Sara Netanyahu.
Police said Sunday they would not request that his arrest be extended for Case 1270. No remand extension will be sought for Eli Kamir, the former Bezeq strategic advisor involved in the affair, and he will be discharged under restrictive conditions. Kamir is currently being investigated by police.
Iris Elovitch's lawyers issued the following response to Channel 10's report: "This is a serious, unlawful leak which distorts reality, intentionally ignoring important facts which—if presented—would prove that Iris Elovitch committed no offense whatsoever."
An aide to Prime Minister Netanyahu commented, "This is another clear attempt to harm the prime minister through distorted leaks concerning his wife. Despite the wild and unrestrained behavior which has reached new heights over the past week, the truth will win and Prime Minister Netanyahu will keep leading the State of Israel responsibly and protecting its security."
