Police arrest foreign worker employed illegally by Barak's wife
Case against defense minister's wife reopened last week after Israel Radio correspondent tracked down Virginia.
Nili Priel.
Israel Police on Sunday evening arrested a Filipina woman suspected of working illegally as a housekeeper for Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his wife, Nili Priel.
Virginia was located in Tel Aviv, in a join raid with the Oz immigration unit.
Police have been searching for Virginia since last year, when it emerged revealed that Priel was employing a migrant worker without a license.
The housekeeper, who did chores twice a week and helped out when the couple held parties, had previously been employed in Israel legally as a caretaker but began cleaning homes when her employment license expired.
Priel admitted last week that she had employed the foreign worker and said she takes full responsibility for the action.
The confession came after the attorney general closed the case for lack of evidence and subsequently reopened it after Israel Radio correspondent Carmela Menashe tracked down the woman by using the telephone number Priel had - which she did not give the investigators.
Priel asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to punish her with a fine and thus end the affair without further legal ramification, but her request was denied. A senior attorney in Weinstein's office, Raz Nizri, old Priel in response that the act was deserving of full investigation and that the payment of a fine would not suffice.
Reports from : (HAARETZ)
Photo by: David Bachar
