JERUSALEM �� Israeli police recommended Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stand trial on bribery charges for allegedly trading regulatory benefits for favorable media coverage.
It is the third corruption case in which police have recommended that Netanyahu be indicted for his dealings with powerful businessmen.
Netanyahu is politically weakened as his government's majority in parliament has fallen to a single seat. There is talk of early elections.
Investigators recommended that Netanyahu's wife, Sara, also be indicted on. The prime minister denied they he and his wife had committed any wrongdoing. "I am sure that in this case, too, the relevant authorities, after examining things, will arrive at the same conclusion �� there was nothing because there is nothing," he said.
The police recommendations are nonbinding. The decision whether to indict falls to Attorney General Avihai Mandelblit, who still hasn't ruled on the two other corruption cases in which police have said Netanyahu should be indicted.
According to a police statement, Netanyahu �� at times also functioning as communications minister �� tipped regulatory policy to benefit Israel's largest telecommunications carrier, Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Corp. In exchange, Bezeq's news subsidiary, Walla, gave the prime minister sympathetic treatment, police allege.
Police recommended that Bezeq's former chairman, Shaul Elovitch, who was forced out of the company this year, stand trial on bribery charges. Elovitch's attorney, Jacques Chen, told the Ynet website that his client denied wrongdoing.
Investigators this year also recommended that Netanyahu be tried for allegedly taking nearly $300,000 worth of gifts from wealthy friends including Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer. The police also said he should be indicted on influence-peddling charges discussing a deal with powerful newspaper publisher Arnon Mozes to push through legislation that would hurt a rival daily in exchange for good coverage.
Netanyahu has also said he's innocent in those cases.
