Shas lawmaker Haim Biton was interrogated by police on Sunday for the second time on suspicion of misusing public funds to finance the ultra-Orthodox party’s mouthpiece newspaper, HaDerech.

The politician was questioned over his activities as former head of Shas’s Ma’ayan Hachinuch Hatorani school network from 2017 to 2021, Hebrew media reported, after he allegedly exploited his position to divert public education funds to prop up the paper’s children’s supplement.

It was the second time Biton has been interrogated in the affair. He was questioned in March last year on suspicion of fraud, breach of trust, falsification of corporate documents and money laundering for his role in the alleged embezzlement. Four additional suspects were also questioned at the time.

The probe into Biton began in October 2024, when Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara gave officers the go-ahead to begin investigating the lawmaker and others associated with the Shas party mouthpiece, following appeals by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, an........

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