Netanyahu supporter charged with sending death threats to Bennett and his family

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The State Attorney’s Office has charged a supporter of opposition Benjamin Netanyahu with threatening and extorting Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his family.

According to an indictment filed on Friday, Ilana Sporta Haniya, 64, sent letters containing death threats and live bullets to Bennett and his family.

The state is accusing Sporta Hania with extortion by threat and carrying a weapon. She denies all charges against her.

The main evidence tying Sporta Hania to the threatening letters, police say, is a lab examination that found that the handwriting on the envelopes fully matches hers.

In addition, investigators discovered she has sent similar letters in the past to other public figures, including then-Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, police said.

The two letters were sent one after the other on Passover from a post office in Ashkelon. The first was addressed to Bennett’s wife Gilat at her former workplace, and arrived on April 25. The second letter was addressed to their eldest son, 16-year-old Yoni, and arrived on April 28.

The police conducted an undercover investigation on Sporta Hania before arresting her. The investigation found that she had made use of other Netanyahu supporters, without their knowledge, in order to obtain Gilat Bennett’s former workplace address for the purpose of sending the threatening letter.

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Sporta Hania retired from her position as a nurse five years ago, and is known as an activist on behalf of Netanyahu.

Her husband, Shmuel Sporta, was also arrested and questioned last week on suspicion of supplying his wife with the bullets found in the letters. This was later ruled out; it is now believed that Sporta Hania operated without the knowledge of others, according to police.

Sporta Hania has often referred to Bennett as a “murderer,” “swindler,” and “traitor,” on social media, and has been investigated in the past over one of these posts.