Israeli police's Sunday recommendation to indict Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in two corruption cases is drawing mass attention in the Jewish state, with some people considered it "meaningless."
"This is meaningless," said Olmert's legal team in a statement released almost at the same time when the police statement was issued on Sunday evening.
After a five-hour marathon meeting, Israeli police made the recommendation proposal against Olmert and sent it to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz.
The move was stroke back immediately by Olmert's legal team, saying in the statement that the police recommendation had no impact because "the only person with the authority to indict the prime minister" is the attorney general.
"We will wait patiently for the decision of the attorney general," the statement said. "Unlike the police, he is aware of the heavy responsibility he holds."
Olmert's media advisor Amir Dan slammed the police by saying that "the police have no choice but to recommend an indictment, since they have to justify the fact that they brought down a prime minister in office."
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Xinhua Sunday night that the police recommendation urges that the prime minister should be charged with bribery, the most severe charge he faced, as well as fraud, breach of trust and a string of other charges over two ongoing cases against him.
One case is the Rishon Tours affair, wherein Olmert is suspected of double-billing the same overseas trips and used the extra money to fund private trips for himself and his family, and the other is the "money envelopes" affair, wherein he allegedly took illicit money from Jewish American businessman Morris Talansky over the course of 15 years.
Local daily Ha'aretz reported that investigators were not always able to connect Talansky's testimony with the exact bank withdrawals, quoting a source familiar with the investigation as saying that Talansky and those present during the alleged handovers of cash "describe the events differently."
According to the law, Mazuz and State Attorney Moshe Lador willreview the case material submitted by police on Sunday evening andwill make a decision on whether to charge the prime minister in two weeks after a hearing to Olmert.
However, local news service Ynet noted that in the past, Mazuz and his predecessors had turned down police recommendations to indict Israeli leaders several times.
Most of web viewers shared the opinion of an internet surfer self-named David, who predicted in the website that police only started "a storm in a tea cup" and Olmert "would walk away free with a fat pension."
Another reader of the Ha'aretz web site mentioned the case of the former President Moshe Katsav, who reached a plea agreement with the State Prosecutor's Office before he resigned in June.
Katsav was accused by two female employees of sexual offenses, but he would only be charged for indecent acts and pay the victims compensation, but would not be imprisoned, according to the plea agreement.
Moreover, even though Mazuz could formulate formal indictments against Olmert by end of this month, Olmert would still play the role of the prime minister of the country for some time.
Olmert pledged in May that he would step down from this position if indicted, and then announced in late July that he would resign as soon as a new leader of his ruling Kadima party is elected.
Yet if the new chairman of Kadima party could not form a new government, he would be the acting prime minister unless he asked the attorney general to declare him unable to perform his duties.
Ha'aretz reported Saturday that some senior figures in Kadima claimed that Olmert would like to prevent the establishment of an alternative cabinet led by the new leader of the party, which effectively means that he would push for early elections. In this scenario, Olmert would stay in power for more months.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article