Police recommend Haifa Chief Rabbi be prosecuted

The National Fraud Unit recommended that Haifa's Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Shlomo Shlush be prosecuted for offences related to bribery, fraud, breach of trust, misuse of a public position and transgression of the Law Forbidding Kosher Fraud.

At the end of a three-year probe, the Head of the Police Investigations Unit Yoav Segalovich, accepted the investigators' recommendations and the case will be brought before the State Prosecutor within the next few days.

The rabbi insists that he was the one who was subjected to extortion.

In 2008, a complaint was filed against Shlush following the State Comptroller's report and a Yedioth Ahronoth expose.

In 2010, the attorney general ordered the government to investigate the rabbi, prompting numerous investigations of both Shlush himself and his aides. Though investigators found that the rabbi was receiving bribes and threatening businesses with loss of their Kosher certificate for reasons unrelated to religious law, no indictments were filed.

According to Shlush' attorney, Tami Olman: "With all due respect to the fraud unit, they are not the ones who should decide who is prosecuted. It is the Magistrates Court's decision."

Olman said she found the investigation to be negligent. "The person who was extorted was Rabbi Shlush. A political group is trying to oust him and is using illegitimate means, such as false complaints."