Police arrest 20 members of Arab political party for corruption

Israeli police arrested 20 members of the Arab Balad political party on suspicion that they were using the party as a money laundering operation.

Police and security forces arrested some 20 members of the Arab Balad political party at various locations across the country early Sunday morning on suspicion that they were using the party’s activities as a money laundering operation.

No acting Members of Knesset (MK) were arrested in the raids.

According to an ongoing covert investigation which became public after the arrests, millions of shekels were presented as donations to the party from hundreds of sources in Israel, while in fact they came from other sources and in fact were not donations.

The charges include accepting assets under false pretenses, writing false information in official documents, forgery, use of forged documents, money laundering and violating party finance and local municipality laws.

The suspects will be brought before a judge for their remanding later in the day.

Balad is currently represented in the Knesset as part of the Joint Arab List.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

BaladCorruptionCrimeIsraeli Arabs