JERUSALEM — Israeli police said Sunday that they arrested senior officials from the country’s national telephone company as part of an investigation into alleged corruption offenses.
Israeli media said that among those arrested were close associates of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been accused of taking bribes from billionaire supporters.
Police revealed few details about the case and quickly slapped a gag order on its details. But Israeli daily Haaretz reported that police are investigating a possible relationship between the company, Bezeq, its controlling shareholder Shaul Elovitch and Netanyahu. According to Channel 2 TV, Netanyahu is accused of receiving favorable coverage from the Walla news site, a Bezeq subsidiary, in exchange for regulation that earned Elovitch hundreds of millions of dollars.
The channel says two people arrested are Netanyahu associates and that Netanyahu, who held the communications portfolio until last year, is expected to be questioned.
Netanyahu denied wrongdoing.
Journalists from the Walla news site have indicated they were coerced to refrain from negative coverage of Netanyahu.
“I was witness to the despicable pattern in which this media outlet tried to suck up to Prime Minister Netanyahu,” said Dov Gil-Har, a former Walla journalist.