Hefetz ordered Elovitch to destroy evidence
'Delete all messages to Sara Netanyahu, destroy your phones,' state's witness Hefetz told Bezeq owner Elovitch and his wife after fearing the correspondence might reveal collusion between them and the Netanyahu couple.
Nir Hefetz, the former media adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who turned state's witness in the Bezeq affair (also known as Case 4000), has confessed to police investigators that he had ordered Bezeq majority shareholder Shaul Elovitch and his wife Iris to delete correspondence regarding the favorable coverage given to the Netanyahu family on Walla! News and destroy all evidence of it.
"When the stories (about the investigation) began to appear (in the news), I realized that everything had to be erased. I told Shaul and Iris to erase the SMS messages (from Sara Netanyahu), and destroy their phones. I destroyed mine," he told investigators.
Hefetz did destroy his phone, which included text messages and recordings indicating the connection between those involved in the affair. However, after signing a state's witness agreement, Hefetz revealed that he had kept copies of the recordings and hid additional evidence in other devices.
"He brought evidence that wholly implicates Netanyahu," a source within the investigation said.
The police were also able to reach some of the missing material thanks to Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua, who has been fully cooperating with investigators.
Hefetz did not take into account the fact that Yeshua made sure to keep the correspondence pressuring him to give Netanyahu and his family more favorable coverage on Walla! News, which is owned by Bezeq.
"Some of the material they managed to conceal, but the majority was eventually uncovered," a source from the investigation told Ynet.
While he was arrested on suspicion of mediating bribery, another one of the main suspicions against Hefetz was obstruction of justice. Police suspect Hefetz was the man who relayed orders from Netanyahu to former Communications Ministry Director-General Shlomo Filber and from there to Elovitch.
Hefetz was also the person who linked Sara Netanyahu, the premier's wife, to Iris Elovitch, who was the one who actually messaged the CEO of Walla with complaints about the nature of the Netanyahu couple's coverage.
Now it appears that about a year ago, when the investigations were still in early stages and only began making headlines, the Netanyahu couple was anxious about the correspondence between them and the Elovitch couple, and so Hefetz was directed to do the clean-up work.
"It was an act of onstruction like those done by the biggest offenders," said a source involved in the investigation. "Those who have nothing to hide do not act like that to obstruct an investigation."
When the interrogators showed Hefetz some of the evidence they had received, which clearly indicated he had seriously obstructed the interrogation, he realized the only way for him to avoid a lengthy jail term was to turn state's witness.
