Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara late Thursday (Dec 26) ordered the police to open an investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife Sara on the suspicion of harassing political opponents in the PM's corruption trial. 

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According to a report by the news agency Associated Press, Attorney General Miara said that the investigation would focus on the findings of a recent report by the “Uvda” investigative program into Sara Netanyahu.

The investigative program uncovered a trove of WhatsApp messages in which Sara appeared to instruct a former aide to organise protests against political opponents and to intimidate Hadas Klein, a key witness in Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial.

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In the trial, PM Netanyahu is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of cases alleging he exchanged favours with powerful media moguls and wealthy associates.

Who is the former aide?

The former aide has been identified as Hanni Bleiweiss who died of cancer last year. The Uvda report said that in the WhatsApp messages, Sara, through Bleiweiss, encouraged police to crack down violently on anti-government protesters and ordered Bleiweiss to organise protests against her husband’s critics. 

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She also told Bleiweiss to get activists in Netanyahu’s Likud party to publish attacks on Klein.

Bleiweiss also was instructed to organize demonstrations outside the homes of the lead prosecutor in the corruption case, Liat Ben-Ari, and then-Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who had issued the indictments, and protests and social media campaigns smearing political opponents.

'They mercilessly attack my wife'

Benjamin Netanyahu called the Uvda program "false propaganda, nasty propaganda that brings up lies from the darkness.”

“My opponents on the left and in the media found a new-old target. They mercilessly attack my wife, Sara,” he said. 

(With inputs from agencies)