The Netanyahu family responded on Thursday evening to reports that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit intends to indict Sara Netanyahu, the wife of the Prime Minister, as soon as Friday.
"The allegations against the wife of the Prime Minister are absurd and will be proven as such. Sara Netanyahu is a courageous and honest woman and there have never been any flaws with her actions. In addition to working as an educational psychologist and child care expert every week, she spends much of her time helping children with cancer, Holocaust survivors and lone soldiers,” the statement said.
The Netanyahu family said that the steep increase in meal expenses at the Prime Minister's Residence “was caused by offenses committed by the problematic house manager Manny Naftali, a state witness and a serial liar. The average monthly expenditure on meals during the period in which Naftali served as house manager is five times higher than the monthly average in the four years which followed, when Naftali did not work there. That says everything."
"Naftali is falsely accusing the Prime Minister’s wife in order to escape responsibility for the crimes he committed," Sara Netanyahu's relatives said. "Not only did the wife of the Prime Minister not commit any offense, the very preoccupation with the food of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who works around the clock for the benefit of the state and its security, and with the food of his family is pathetic and obsessive.”
"None of the former prime ministers received such treatment, even though the expenses of other prime ministers on meals were identical and sometimes even higher. How long will this obsessive preoccupation with the Netanyahu family last?" the family said.
Channel 2 reported earlier on Thursday that the pending indictment against Netanyahu is related to suspicions she misused public funds in a series of cases known collectively as the “Residences Scandal”.
According to the report, Mandelblit notified the Netanyahu family of the pending indictment. Binyamin and Sara Netanyahu did not seek a plea bargain agreement.
Police questioned Netanyahu in December of 2015, and in late May recommended she be charged with fraudulent acquisition, fraud, and breach of public trust.