One of the latest campaign issues was revealed last night when Lior Horev, an advisor to Prime Minister Sharon, said he had filed a police complaint regarding what he called "a campaign of eavesdropping, wiretapping, and physical tracking waged against us [the Likud] since the beginning of the week." He said that it began when he obtained an important videocassette featuring a former police detective explaining that Police Investigations Unit Chief Moshe Mizrachi had carried out illegal wiretappings on many right-wing politicians.Horev said that a copy of the tape was stolen from a lawyer's office just before he was supposed to pick it up, and that shortly after he obtained another copy of the tape, two cars followed him all the way from Tel Aviv to Ashdod.
The tape shows Stanislav Yazemski, who had once workedunderMizrachi, explaining that among Mizrachi's wiretapping subjects were Ariel Sharon, Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Avigdor Lieberman and his family, National Union MK Eliezer Cohen, and associates of former Shas leader Aryeh Deri. The Police Department has been investigating Mizrachi on these issues for over four months.
Horev claimed that his police complaint was not connected with the elections, and that he "only hopes that none of the politicians sitting beside me tonight are living under the threat of blackmail." Despite this, Labor Party Secretary-General Ophir Pines charged that the Likud was trying to "manipulate the media" to divert public attention from Labor's accusations against Sharon and his sons. Even leading Likud officials said that the timing of these revelations is not helpful to the Likud, and the party publicly expressed its "full confidence" in the police.
The tape shows Stanislav Yazemski, who had once workedunderMizrachi, explaining that among Mizrachi's wiretapping subjects were Ariel Sharon, Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Avigdor Lieberman and his family, National Union MK Eliezer Cohen, and associates of former Shas leader Aryeh Deri. The Police Department has been investigating Mizrachi on these issues for over four months.
Horev claimed that his police complaint was not connected with the elections, and that he "only hopes that none of the politicians sitting beside me tonight are living under the threat of blackmail." Despite this, Labor Party Secretary-General Ophir Pines charged that the Likud was trying to "manipulate the media" to divert public attention from Labor's accusations against Sharon and his sons. Even leading Likud officials said that the timing of these revelations is not helpful to the Likud, and the party publicly expressed its "full confidence" in the police.