Sara Netanyahu to be questioned under caution about expenses

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has authorized police to question Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife, Sara, under caution about expenses at the Prime Minister's Residence.

Sara Netanyahu will most likely be questioned on Thursday, and she may be asked about allegations that expenses for the Netanyahu family's private home in Caesarea were submitted for government reimbursement.

The family's media adviser, Nir Hefetz, said in response that the claims against Sara Netanyahu "are nonsense. They never happened, and it will be clearly and irrefutably proved."

The investigation began in July after Weinstein decided to act on the recommendation of State Attorney Shai Nitzan and the head of the Israel Police Investigations and Intelligence Branch, Meni Yitzhaki, who suggested there were grounds to launch a criminal investigation into a number of matters related to the management of the Prime Minister's Residence.

Some months earlier, in March, Weinstein had instructed the police to begin examining material on the topic, which they did after the Knesset election. The announcement of the attorney general's decision at the time twice stated explicitly that "the material collected thus far contains no evidence that cast suspicion on the prime minister himself as having been involved in the alleged acts."

Meanwhile, officials in the Prime Minister's Office on Monday flatly denied reports on various news sites that the Netanyahu family had requested that the state pay for expenses related to the family's dog, Kaiya.

According to Prime Minister's Office officials, "When the dog was brought home, the facilities manager contacted the Prime Minister's Office accountant and asked if [the dog-related] expenses were considered private or not. The answer was that the expenses for the dog were private, and that's how they were handled."

The Prime Minister's Office issued a statement saying that "the Netanyahu family pays for all the dog's expenses with their own money and it has nothing to do with government funds."

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