Reporter Poland 2006

28.08.2003 Izrael N/z Avigdor Liberman wicepremier i minister ds. strategicznych Fot. Yael Tzur/Israel Sun/REPORTER The police have been conducting a lengthy inquiry into suspicions that Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman has an illegal business relationship with Austrian businessman Robert Milkowsky, who has substantial business interests in Israel. An Austrian court recently approved an Israeli request to conduct its investigation in Austria, allowing investigators to take depositions from various people and to examine bank accounts suspected of being connected to the affair. The court decision followed a lower court ruling denying the Israeli request. In interviews to Israeli radio stations Thursday, Lieberman confirmed that he had received a million-dollar guarantee for funding the 1999 Yisrael Beiteinu election campaign from Milkowsky, who he said was a good friend, but asked why he woke up to find the issue all over the newspapers four-and-a-half years after a State Comptroller's report mentioning the issue was first released. He said neither he nor his lawyers had been told that an investigation was taking place. "It can't be that people put some case against every politician in a drawer... [and] when they want to change the spin or interfere in the political system, they take the case out of the drawer," Lieberman said.