Jerusalem - Israeli police announced serious new suspicions
of corruption against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Friday, saying that
for years he allegedly submitted travel expenses for the same trip
abroad more than once, pocketing the 'significant' surplus.
Olmert is suspected of submitting receipts for flights around the
world to various public bodies, including the state, as if they each
'were the only one financing the flight described in the receipt,'
said a joint statement issued by the Israeli Justice Ministry and
police, faxed to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
He allegedly put the extra money in a special bank account on
his name and used it for private trips abroad made by his family and
himself, it added.
He allegedly did so while travelling abroad as mayor of Jerusalem
and as trade and industry minister over the past years.
The statement said he in this way 'fraudulently' accumulated
'significant sums' over years. It did not give a figure, but Israel
Radio said the money allegedly pocketed by Olmert amounted to
hundreds of thousands of US dollars.
The receipts were sent to the various bodies by Olmert's travel
agent, which also managed his special bank account, the statement
said.
The premier's spokesman, Mark Regev, denied the allegations.
'The prime minister is convinced of his innocence of any wrong-
doing and strongly believes that as this investigation continues,
that innocence will be clearly demonstrated,' he told dpa.
The new suspicions surfaced as part of an ongoing police
investigation against the premier, which is looking into allegations
that he illegally accepted tens, and possibly hundreds, of thousands
of US dollars from a US businessman and fundraiser, Morris Talansky,
over a period of 15 years, before being elected prime minister in
early 2006.
They are based on documents and witness accounts collected during
the past weeks.
Israel's attorney-general as a result authorized broadening the
police investigation against Olmert already a month ago, but did not
announce this so as to avoid jeopardizing a questioning session of
the premier scheduled for Friday, in which detectives confronted him
with the new suspicions.
The dramatic announcement comes as Olmert's political future is
already becoming increasingly uncertain.
His largest coalition partner, the Labour Party, has forced him
to agree to holding early primaries in his own, centrist Kadima,
which the party decided this week to hold in mid-September.
Olmert, 62, had earlier hoped that a crucial cross-examination of
Talanksy next Thursday by his own lawyers would change the negative
perception of him and reduce pressure on him to resign. But the grave
new suspicions are likely to do the opposite.
As first reactions began pouring in, Haim Oron of the opposition,
left-liberal Meretz party, called the new suspicions against Olmert
'severe' and said they strengthened demands that he should 'fight for
his innocence as a private person and not as a premier.'
Shelly Yacimovich, a known Olmert adversary in the coalition
Labour Party, reiterated her demand that the premier should resign
'immediately.'
Talansky had given his version of the earlier suspicions against
Olmert in a pre-trial testimony to a Jerusalem court in late May.
He said he had given Olmert 150,000 dollars, much of it in cash in
envelopes because he was asked to do so, between 1992 and 2005. He
said he raised the money on behalf of Olmert, then a member of the
hardline Likud party, for ideological reasons.
Talansky however has since turned against Olmert and become the
key state witness in the case.
Olmert's associates have accused Talanksy of belonging to hardline
circles, hinting the premier's ideological shift in favour of a
two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an Israeli
withdrawal from the occupied territories and a possible division of
Jerusalem, may be behind the rift.
Olmert has admitted to receiving several envelopes, but with
hundreds of dollars only, not thousands or tens of thousands. His
lawyers and spokesmen have said they were legitimate reimbursements
for food and accommodation expenses, paid for by his hosts when
invited to speak at events in the US.
He has said the larger donations were all used to cover, in part
retroactively, four election campaigns - when he ran for mayor of
Jerusalem in 1993 and 1998 and for the Likud leadership in 1999 and
2002.
But police are investigating whether a future trade-off was
expected in return for the donations, which could prove the
allegation of taking bribes. The Israeli Ma'ariv daily on
Thursday printed letters written by Olmert, among others one to top
=Las Vegas real-estate mogul Sheldon Adelson dating November 2005,
asking the addressees to consider the services of Talansky's company,
Cooltech, which produces mini-bars for hotels.
Olmert has promised to resign if the police investigation
materializes into an indictment against him.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story