JERUSALEM, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Israeli police confirmed on Wednesday that seven senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's personal attorney, had been arrested over alleged corruption in a purchase deal of submarines from Germany.
The investigation, dubbed by the police as "Case 3000," concerns possible corruption and bribery in a 2-billion-dollar deal between Israel and the German shipbuilding conglomerate ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.
The deal, signed in 2016, had started to draw public attention after it emerged that David Shimron, 65, Netanyahu's cousin and confidant, as well as the personal lawyer of the prime minister, also represented the local agent of ThyssenKrupp.
Shimron has been under house arrest since Monday, and was investigated for the third time at the headquarters of the Lahav 433 anti-fraud unit outside Tel Aviv, said police spokeswoman Luba Samri.
Under his house arrest terms, Shimron is banned from holding phone talks with Netanyahu and officials from ThyssenKrupp.
Earlier this week, the police arrested six people involved in the scandal, including Maj.-Gen. (res) Eliezer Marom, former commander of the Israeli Navy. On Tuesday, Marom was released from custody and was put under house arrest.
Other suspects include ThyssenKrupp's Israeli agent, Miki Ganor; Ronen Shemer, a lawyer and Ganor's employee; and former deputy head of the National Security Council Avriel Bar-Yosef.
They were arrested as part of a joint investigation by the police, the Tax Authority, the Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority, and the taxation and economy department at the State Attorney's Office.
The police said in a statement to the court that they were investigated on suspicions of fraud, bribery, breach of trust, tax evasion and money laundering. "At the time of the events under question, some of the suspects were public servants and some worked in the private sector," the statement read.
Netanyahu is not a suspect in this affair, but according to the Hebrew-language Ynet news site, the police plan to invite him to testify on what he knows about the case.
