Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was summoned by Lahav 433 for an open testimony on Monday.
This is part of an ongoing investigation, suspecting that during the tenure of former Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, diplomatic passports were issued to individuals who were not entitled to them.
A date for the testimony has not yet been set.
The police are expected to summon additional people who received diplomatic passports during Cohen’s time in office as part of the investigation, which focuses on the suspicion of issuing diplomatic passports to people who were not entitled to them. Cohen himself is expected to be questioned under caution soon.
The investigation has been ongoing at Lahav 433 for almost a year. It began as a covert investigation, which turned public after a raid by Lahav 433 investigators on the Foreign Ministry in August of last year. So far, no one has been questioned under caution in this case.
Investigators from the National Fraud Investigation Unit (YAHALOM) in Lahav 433 raided the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Jerusalem in August of last year, searched the offices, and seized materials as part of an investigation into the suspicion of issuing diplomatic passports to people who were not entitled to them.
The unit launched a covert investigation regarding the suspicion that these passports were issued to individuals who did not meet the criteria for receiving a diplomatic passport. According to sources familiar with the details, the investigation concerns a passport issued to Yair Netanyahu and several other diplomatic passports that were issued unlawfully to Likud activists.
Issuing diplomatic passports is not the minister's responsibility
Several months earlier, Gidi Weitz published in Haaretz that former Foreign Minister Eli Cohen had instructed the issuance of diplomatic passports for Yair Netanyahu, and for powerful figures in the Likud party, contrary to the position of the professional staff at the Foreign Ministry.
Issuing diplomatic passports is the authority of the Foreign Ministry’s Director-General, not the minister. According to a report by Micha’el Shemesh on Kan 11, Netanyahu's office has been requesting and receiving diplomatic passports for Yair Netanyahu since 2009, and all their requests have been approved.