Israeli mass media: Lieberman’s good fellowship with last dictatorship of Europe is mystery

A scandal around Foreign Minister of the country and ex-Ambassador to Belarus Avigdor Lieberman starts in Israel.

Police has interrogated Foreign Minister of Israel Avigdor Lieberman as a suspect in obstructing an investigation and breach of public trust, Cursorinfo.co.il informs.

As noted by official sources, the minister was interrogated in the framework of the investigation held against the former envoy to Belarus, Ze'ev Ben Aryeh.

It is informed that Ben Aryeh is accused of turning classified information about a criminal investigation against him over to Lieberman in Minsk.

During the investigation Israeli law enforcing agencies addressed through the embassy to their Belarusian colleagues with a request to provide this information.

Ambassador Ze'ev Ben Aryeh passed that request to the prosecutor’s office of Belarus, however left a copy of the document for him. When Lieberman visited Minsk in 2008, the classified information was passed to him, as police suspects.

As informed, Lieberman is suspected of advancing Ben Aryeh's position in the Foreign Ministry in exchange for the information.

Israel-based Haaretz informs that long before Avigdor Lieberman became excessively interested in relations between Israel and Belarus long before he became Foreign Minister. In 2004, when his was transportation minister in the government of Ariel Sharon, Lieberman lobbied actively for Israel to reopen its Minsk embassy, closed following budget cuts the previous year.

Then as said by anonymous sources in the Foreign Ministry, Lieberman helped Ze'ev Ben Aryeh to be appointed as ambassador. Between October 2008 and June 2009, Lieberman made three visits to Minsk, two times on an official visit and for vacation right after the election. The reason for Avigdor Lieberman's peculiar interest in “the last dictatorship of Europe” is unclear, Haaretz reports.