The deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Oren Hazan, has been barred from presiding over any parliamentary meetings after a television report claimed that he used hard drugs and hired prostitutes for clients while managing a casino in Bulgaria.
Mr Hazan, who was elected on the Likud party list headed by prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the March elections, threatened to sue Channel 2 News and its political correspondent Amit Segal. The report claimed he had managed an illegal casino in a Bulgarian Black Sea resort prior to being elected to the Knesset, used crystal meth, and had regularly hired prostitutes for gamblers visiting the casino.
The report quoted Israeli tourists and a casino employee who said Mr Hazan hired local prostitutes from a nearby strip club for his guests at the Burgas casino. Sonya, the manager of the strip club, appeared astonished when the interviewer informed her that the man she referred to as "Oren, the big boss" had now gone into politics in Israel.
Both prostitution and hard-drug use are illegal in Bulgaria.
Mr Hazan (33) vehemently denied the allegations, telling army radio “there were no drugs or pimping and Channel 2 should keep their fantasies to themselves”.
The Knesset barred Mr Hazan from chairing Knesset plenum meetings until further notice and a senior Likud source called for him to step down from the high-profile position, as well as from his membership of legislative committees, including the prestigious Knesset foreign affairs and defence committee, until he can prove his innocence.
Zehava Galon, leader of the opposition Meretz party, called on the Israeli police to ask Interpol to open an investigation.
“We seem to have reached a new low. We thought that we’d reached the bottom with a president who raped, and a prime minister who stole. But this pit seems bottomless,” she said. “This should send a warning light about what kind of people make it into the Knesset.”
Former Israeli president Moshe Katsav is serving a seven-year jail sentence following a rape conviction in 2010, while former prime minister Ehud Olmert was sentenced to eight months last month on corruption charges. He already faces a six-year prison term over a separate corruption conviction, which is under appeal.
Mr Netanyahu made no comment on the allegations against Oren Hazan.
Ironically, Mr Hazan on Tuesday became a member of the newly reinstated Knesset committee for the war on drugs.
He is the son of disgraced former Likud Knesset member Yehiel Hazan, who was convicted of forgery, fraud and breach of trust after trying to cover up the fact that he double-voted in the Knesset in 2003.
