Sara Netanyahu charged with fraud over catering allegations

Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israel’s prime minister, has been charged with fraud and breach of trust for allegedly using public funds to pay for restaurant meals to be delivered to the couple’s official residence.

The long-anticipated charges were announced by Israel’s justice ministry on Thursday. Benjamin Netanyahu is also under investigation.

According to the indictment, Sara Netanyahu spent tens of thousands of dollars on meals from expensive restaurants between 2010 and 2013 in alleged violation of rules barring the residence from ordering in meals during periods when there was a cook on its staff.

Prosecutors claim that Sara Netanyahu conspired with a senior official at the residence to hide the fact that the meals were not eligible for reimbursement.

The indictment said she acted to “fraudulently obtain state funding for various expenses for the accused and her family that were not supposed to be financed in this manner”.

She is accused of directing staff at the residence, including a former housekeeper, Meni Naftali – who later sued the Netanyahu family and the Israeli state for damages over his treatment by Sara Netanyahu – and another employee, to hide the fact that cooks were employed in the residence “so that this won’t be found out by the treasury and the office manager”.

If convicted, she could face a maximum sentence of five years behind bars, though this is unlikely.

Lawyers for Sara Netanyahu’s hit back, however, denouncing the charges as “false and delusional.”

“Not only is the indictment based on false claims and distorted and mistaken data, it is based entirely on an illegitimate and illegal regulation imposed specifically for Prime Minister Netanyahu,” the lawyers claimed.

The charges are the culmination of years of investigation into Sara Netanyahu’s official expenses.

In September 2017, Israel’s attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, announced he was minded to file an indictment subject to a pre-indictment hearing, which took place in January.

According to reports in the Israeli media, the charges come after the failure of a plea bargain that could have seen Sara Netanyahu return some of the money and acknowledge responsibility in exchange for no criminal conviction.

The case against Sara Netanyahu, a child psychologist, has long been used by critics of the Netanyahu family as evidence of their taste for freeloading.

Benjamin Netanyahu has called the allegations against his wife absurd and unfounded. The Israeli prime minister is himself embroiled in a series of corruption investigations but has protested his innocence and vowed to remain in power, saying he is the victim of a witch-hunt.

In one case, he and family members are suspected of receiving 1m shekels (£210,000) worth of luxury cigars, champagne and jewellery from wealthy people in exchange for financial or personal favours.

In another, investigators suspect the premier of trying to reach an agreement with the owner of Yedioth Ahronoth, a top Israeli newspaper, for more favourable coverage.

Despite his troubles, opinion polls suggest Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party would remain the largest in parliament if elections scheduled for November 2019 were held now.

Sara Netanyahu, 59, has inspired a series of negative headlines over what her family says is an undeserved reputation for imperiousness.