Israeli police put Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the grill Friday morning, dealing another blow to the already probes-laden leader.
The questioning began in the mid-morning at Olmert's residence in Jerusalem, and ended some 90 minutes later, with neither the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) nor the police specifying what the session is related to.
Meanwhile, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the probe, hastily scheduled after police received a special permit from Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, concerns suspicion that Olmert received bribes from an American businessman based in Israel, on which Former Prime Minister's Office Bureau Chief Shula Zaken was also questioned on Tuesday.
Should the report be true, this would mark a new investigation against the prime minister, adding to the previous two criminal and one preliminary probes involving real estate deals and questionable political appointments, all related to the time before he became the prime minister.
Following the latest investigation, several members of Israeli parliament the Knesset called Olmert, who had been questioned twice in October by fraud investigators, to suspend himself immediately.
"Olmert is stuck up to his neck in investigations. We cannot have a prime minister who is serially investigated by police," lawmaker Shelly Yacimovich from Olmert's ruling coalition told Israel Radio. "In the entire world there was never yet a precedent of a prime minister against whom so many investigations were held."
However, Olmert is convinced that the allegations against him do not hold water, the PMO said Thursday night after the schedule of the police questioning went public.
"The prime minister intends to fully cooperate with law enforcement officials, as he has done in the past," said the PMO. "He is convinced that as the truth will emerge in the framework of the police investigation, the suspicions against him will dissipate."
<i>Source:Xinhua</i>
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