JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went through a new round of questioning on Friday, police said, amid graft allegations that have threatened to topple him.

The premier was questioned at his official residence in the context of investigations by the national economic crimes unit, a police statement in Hebrew said. It gave no further details.

Investigators arrived at the premier’s Jerusalem residence in the morning to interview him over allegations of corruption involving local telecoms giant Bezeq and its largest shareholder, Shaul Elovitch, according to Israeli media reports. It was the 12th time Netanyahu has been questioned in various cases, either as a suspect or a witness.

In the Bezeq case, Netanyahu is alleged to have sought favourable coverage from another Elovitch company, the Walla news site, in exchange for government policies that could have benefited the mogul’s interests to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

After a previous round of questioning in July, Netanyahu’s office said there was no such trade-off.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu has never made a deal with Elovitch in exchange for supportive coverage,” it said, adding that the Walla site had consistently covered the premier “in a hostile manner.” Elovitch was arrested in February along with six other people including Nir Hefetz, a former media adviser to the Netanyahu family.

In addition to the premiership, Netanyahu also held the communications portfolio between November 2014 and February 2017, covering the run-up to the March 2015 elections, when he is alleged to have made the deal with Elovitch.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2018