Israeli police question Prime Minister Netanyahu about the purchase of submarines in Germany
On Tuesday, June 12, Israeli police questioned the country’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The head of the government testified for several hours concerning the purchase of submarines in Germany, Israeli police spokesman Micki Rosenfeld said. According to him, Netanyahu is officially a witness, not a suspect.
A number of politicians have accused the Prime Minister of promoting the deal against the will of the Ministry of Defense of Israel. According to a representative of Netanyahu, the head of government welcomes the opportunity to explain the situation and “refute the false accusations of politicians and other persons.”
In October 2017, the government of Germany approved the sale of three submarines to Israel. The submarines were produced by the German company ThyssenKrupp. The total amount of the deal is 1.5 billion euro. The deal was concluded with financial support from Germany, which explained the action as being a special responsibility for the security of Israel.
Earlier, the signing of the contract was put on hold due to an investigation into possible corruption in the submarine deal. In connection with this, Miki Ganor, representative of ThyssenKrupp, and Ariel Bar-Yosef, former member of the National Security Council of Israel, were arrested. Netanyahu’s lawyer was also involved and was placed under arrest.