Israeli MP to sue channel over drugs, pimping allegations

Israel's deputy parliament speaker, lawmaker Oren Hazan, has said he will sue privately owned Channel 2 over a report alleging his involvement in pimping and drugs.

"I have ordered my lawyer to send this evening a letter of warning ahead of a lawsuit against Channel 2," Hazan, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, said in a posting on his Facebook page late Monday.

"Let them present themselves in court and prove in front of a judge these lies," he said.

Channel 2 ran an investigative report on Monday alleging that Hazan, who used to run a casino in Bulgaria, had arranged to provide casino-goers with prostitutes and had used hard drugs during that time.