Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar was questioned by police on Sunday as part of a major corruption investigation into the Histadrut, Israel’s main labor federation.

Police confirmed that investigators in the Lahav 433 major crimes unit summoned “a sitting minister” to be interrogated in the probe.

Hebrew outlets reported that the minister, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, was questioned about his ties to the main suspect in the affair, Ezra Gabay.

Gabay, an insurance agent and veteran Likud activist, is thought to have exploited his close connections to Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David and Likud party officials to procure jobs and hand out senior positions in government-owned corporations and local authorities in exchange for securing insurance contracts with labor unions and municipalities and their workers.

Police suspect Gabay orchestrated a network of bribes and favors worth millions of shekels in exchange for political and business advantages.

Zohar confirmed the summons in a social media post, saying he arrived Sunday morning for questioning in order to “respond to all the questions and to refute all the claims that will arise.”

“My friendships with various people cannot turn me into a suspect. I have no doubt that the full answers I will provide will refute everything and clarify that I have no connection to this affair,” he wrote on........

© The Times of Israel