MK Oren Hazan of Likud on Tuesday strongly denied a Channel 2 report that he committed crimes, decrying the “sick imaginations” of the media.
A post on his Facebook page said he was preparing a libel suit.
The MK was on Monday night accused in a Channel 2 report of past criminal activity during a trip to Bulgaria, including “arranging” escorts for gamblers at a casino and using hard drugs.
A casino employee said that Hazan, who serves as deputy chairman of the Knesset, would request “pretty girls, with a big chest”.
According to the report, Hazan apparently managed a casino that was not associated with the adjacent hotel. The Bulgarian casino employee said in the report that Hazan paid for the women.
An Israeli tourist was interviewed and said Hazan helped guide him to prostitutes. “He knew the people,” he said.
Also interviewed for the report was the manager of the Red Rose club next to the casino, which according to the report served essentially as an escort service.
The club manager said that Hazan – whom she described as “the big boss” – took 500 lev, or about NIS 1,200. “The driver would come here and talk to me,” she said. “I would tell him the price and then he would take.” She said Hazan would pay up front and then ride off with the women.
The report also showed a casino patron who said he had spent an entire night smoking cannabis and crystal methamphetamine with Hazan, who purchased the drugs.
A tourist interviewed for the report said that two friends would go with Hazan to buy the meth. “I wasn’t with them when they made the purchase, but they bought from someone, some dealer they found on the street,” he said.
“They did a little with him and then came back with it. We went back to the hotel and smoked a little. We smoked grass and did crystal meth that night.”
An Israeli casino employee corroborated this account. “We went to some guy on the street,” he said. “We didn’t know what crystal meth. Somehow we got to him bringing something, and he brought us that blue.”
The employee said he was certain that Hazan also did the drug. “Definitely. One hundred per cent. One hundred percent.”
ההסתבכות החדשה והקשה של סגן יו”ר הכנסת וחבר ועדת חוץ וביטחון: מתחקיר של עמית סגל במהדורה המרכזית של ערוץ 2 עולה כי ח”כ אורן חזן, מספר 30 ברשימת הליכוד לכנסת, “ארגן” נערות ליווי למהמרים של הקזינו בבורגס, בולגריה. עובד בולגרי בקזינו סיפר כי חזן היה מבקש ממנו להביא “בחורות יפות, עם חזה גדול”. בנוסף, נטען בתחקיר כי חזן השתמש בסמים קשים בהיותו בבולגריה.
על פי הכתבה, בניגוד להתבטאויות קודמות, נראה על פניו כי חזן ניהל קזינו שכלל לא היה קשור למלון הסמוך. “הוא היה שולח אותי, היה מצלצל אליי ואומר ‘לך תביא את הבחורות, לך תבחר כמה בחורות, בחורות יפות, עם חזה גדול וגבוהות ותביא את הבחורות האלה לכאן, למקום מסוים, לחברים שלי'”, סיפר הנהג הבולגרי בקזינו בבורגס בתחקיר, שפורסם אמש (יום ב’). לדבריו, חזן, שעד כה טען כי שימש כמנהל המלון שבו נמצא הקזינו, היה זה ששילם על הנשים: “הוא שילם על כולן”.
תייר ישראלי שהתראיין לתחקיר סיפר: “הוא הכיר את העניינים, לקח אותנו ל… לזונות, לזה, לבדוק את כל העניינים, פינק אותנו. הוא הכיר את האנשים. הוא מכיר איפה ומה, הוא יודע לאן ללכת… הוא שילם עלינו”.
לכתבה התראיינה מנהלת מועדון “רד רוז” הסמוך לקזינו, שלפי התחקיר משמש למעשה כמכון ליווי. לדבריה, חזן, שאותו היא הגדירה “הבוס הגדול”, לקח כ-500 לב, שהם כ-1,200 שקל: “הנהג היה מגיע לכאן ומדבר איתי. הייתי אומרת לו את המחיר ואז הוא היה לוקח”. לדבריה, חזן היה משלם תחילה, ואחר כך הוא והנשים היו נוסעים ביחד.
בהמשך תועד מבלה בקזינו שסיפר שבמשך לילה שלם עישן עם חזן קנאביס וקריסטל מת’ שקנה מי שעתיד היה להפוך לסגן יו”ר הכנסת.
תייר שהתראיין בתחקיר אמר: “שני חברים והוא הלכו לקנות קריסטל מת'”.
– ממי הם קנו?
“אני לא הייתי איתם כשהם קנו, אבל הם קנו מאיזה מישהו, איזה סוחר שמצאו ברחוב. עשו איתו קצת שמה
ואז חזרו עם זה. נסענו חזרה למלון ובמלון עישנו קצת. עישנו גראס ועשינו קריסטל מת’ באותו הלילה”.
עובד ישראלי בקזינו הוסיף: “הגענו לאיזה מישהו ברחוב. אנחנו לא ידענו מה זה קריסטל מת’. איכשהו התגלגל שיביא משהו, הביא לנו את הכחול הזה”.
– אתה זוכר בוודאות שהוא (אורן) עשה?
“אה, כן, כן. בוודאות. מאה אחוז. מאה אחוז”.
ח”כ חזן מסר בתגובה: “צר לי לאכזב אתכם, אולם הפנטזיות המיניות, האישיות והדמיון החולני שלכם ושל אלה שמזינים אתכם אינם עולים בקנה אחד עם המציאות והאמת”. הלילה פרסם חבר הכנסת פוסט בעמוד הפייסבוק שלו וכתב כי הוא עומד להגיש תביעת דיבה בנושא והוסיף: “אני קובע חד-משמעית, לא היו סמים. לא הייתה סרסרות בנשים”.
MK Oren Hazan (Likud) skipped his first planned plenum meeting as deputy Knesset speaker, following a report that he managed a casino in Burgas, Bulgaria, pimping prostitutes and providing crystal meth to Israeli tourists.
Hazan unequivocally denied the allegations and threatened on Tuesday to sue Channel 2 and its political reporter Amit Segal for reporting so.
On Monday night, Channel 2 News broadcast an investigative report, following up on a report from earlier this year that Hazan, a deputy Knesset speaker, managed the Sunny Beach Casino in the Bulgarian resort town, and didn’t work in a hotel that happened to have a casino, as the MK claimed.
Israeli tourists who said they visited the casino told Segal and others that they did crystal meth with Hazan while there, and the now-MK hired prostitutes for them from a nearby strip club, called “Red Roses.”
The report featured a recording of a phone call with a man saying he was Hazan’s driver, who said he would drive to Red Roses and ask for “good looking girls with big tits” to bring back to the casino.
There was also video of a woman who Segal reported is the “madam” of Red Roses who called Hazan “Oren the Big Boss,” corroborated the stories of him bringing women to the casino, and giggled when she was told that the “big boss” is now in politics.
On Monday morning, Hazan called the report “detestable, baseless lies,” and had his attorney send a pre-lawsuit warning letter to Channel 2 and Segal.
“I say this unequivocally: There were no drugs. There was no pimping women,” he said.
Hazan blamed the media, “which has yet to accept the Likud and Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s victory” saying that it is “amazing to what level reporters, anchors, editors and producers are willing to stoop.”
“I came to the Knesset to do important things for the People of Israel and the Land of Israel. I won’t let anyone sway me from my way,” he added.
In an interview with Army Radio, Hazan said he does not know any of the people or recognize the places shown in the Channel 2 Report – though they look similar to pictures on his Facebook account – and added that he would be willing to undergo a polygraph test.
As for photographs of him surrounded by scantily-clad women, Hazan said Channel 2 got them from his Facebook page, and if he was doing something illegal, he wouldn’t have put the pictures online.
MKs across the political spectrum called for Hazan to resign from his position as deputy Knesset speaker.
A senior Likud source called for Hazan to step down from the high-profile position, as well as his membership in legislative committees, including the prestigious Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, until his innocence is proven.
The Likud source called the story an embarrassment and said he had told Hazan, who gained a reputation as the class clown of the Knesset, long ago that he should lower his profile, but he didn’t.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Labor) took to twitter to criticize Netanyahu for staying silent following the allegations against an MK from his party, adding “a different MK should run the plenum meeting today, for the dignity of the Knesset and our citizens.”
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein met with Hazan on Tuesday, and soon after Hazan said that he would leave the Knesset early to see his lawyers, but not that he would resign as deputy Knesset speaker.
Edelstein does not have the authority to fire Hazan from the position, but 61 MKs can vote to do so.
MK Esawi Frej (Meretz) – who Hazan asked last week, in Arabic, that he show his ID, as an IDF soldier would ask a Palestinian at a checkpoint – called for Hazan’s immunity to be removed, so he can be put on trial.
An MK can only be made to leave the Knesset if he is convicted of a crime. However, the Knesset Ethics Committee, which has not been reinstated since the election, can suspend him from all activities except voting.
Ruth Resnick, chairwoman of NGO No 2 Violence Against Women, demanded Hazan’s immediate suspension until an investigation of the pimping allegations is completed, and if Hazan is guilty, he should be removed from the Knesset.
Also Tuesday, Hazan became a member of the newly reinstated Knesset Committee for the War on Drugs.