Last update - 00:00 27/03/2007
Court rejects petition calling for suspension of Finance Minister
By Yuval Yoaz and Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondents
The High Court of Justice on Tuesday rejected a petition calling for the suspension of Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson over allegations that he may have embezzled funds to finance political activity in the Likud party.
Justices Asher Grunis, Miriam Naor and Esther Hayut ruled that the petition, submitted Monday by the Movement for Quality Government, had been premature, and remarked that the group had failed to call on Hirchson himself to step down voluntarily before turning to the court.
"The suspension of a cabinet minister is not a trivial thing," the justices said. "This is a matter that requires serious consideration, and naturally it is impossible to decide these things at the blink of an eye."
The justices added that the rejection of the petition is in no way a declaration of any kind of stance on the issue of Hirchson's suspension.
Hirchson questioned for eight hours
The financial crime investigation unit of the police questioned Hirchson under caution for some eight hours on Tuesday, on suspicion that he had embezzled funds from the National Worker's Labor Federation while he was chairman of the organization.
The investigators presented Hirchson with documents showing irregular bank account transactions made by the minister. Police are questioning Hirchson for the second time over these embezzlement allegations.
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said Monday in an interview on Channel 1 that "there is no reason to suspect that Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson had been framed." Mazuz clarified during the interview that "the word 'frame' has gotten a gentle connotation lately. In every case there is the theoretical possibility that someone is trying to frame someone else. As the evidence is accumulated, and as the sources of the evidence are varied and wide and not limited to one place, the statistical probability of such a possibility diminishes. I can't rule out the possibility, certainly not in the midst of an investigation, but I don't have any special reason to believe that is the case."
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