BAT YAM, Israel -- Former Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu spent his 50th birthday in a fraud squad interrogation room on Thursday as police questioned him about valuables they say he kept illegally after leaving office.
Netanyahu entered a police station in a Tel Aviv suburb with his wife, Sarah, also called in for questioning a day after police searched their home, his office and crates he stored at a government warehouse.Police said investigators seized dozens of valuables, including "pictures and silver and gold objects" Netanyahu received as prime minister. They allege he should have handed over the items to the state after losing May's election.
The search of a former prime minister's home and possessions was unprecedented in Israeli history.
Netanyahu's lawyers said police jumped the gun and that he had planned, after an inventory he requested two weeks ago, to "settle up" with the state on official gifts he received during his three-year tenure.
After the police search ended on Wednesday, Netanyahu invited television cameras into his home to show he had still not unpacked dozens of boxes and suitcases since leaving the prime minister's official residence.
The search was the latest twist in an investigation of suspicions that Netanyahu billed the government for private labor, including removal work, carried out by a contractor.
At question is a $104,000 bill which the contractor, Avner Amadi, presented to the prime minister's office for services he said he rendered while Netanyahu was in power.
Israeli media reports said Amadi had turned state's witness and told police about the valuables they subsequently seized.
Last month, Netanyahu and his wife were questioned at the same police station about their relationship with Amadi. Netanyahu publicly denied any wrongdoing at the time.
Netanyahu's former adviser, Uri Aloni, told Army Radio the police search was the latest step in a police vendetta against the former prime minister, who left office in July.
Aloni described the police investigation as "character assassination."