Last update - 00:00 27/04/2007
Justice Min.: Olmert need not suspend himself over probes
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert does not need to suspend himself while he faces a criminal probe, Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann said Friday.
The state comptroller issued a report Wednesday calling for a criminal probe of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
The justice minister, however, said the comptroller has no authority to investigate suspicions of criminal activity.
Friedmann stressed that by law, the attorney general must decide whether an investigation is necessary.
"The job of the comptroller is to examine whether financial issues are being administered properly, and if he suspects a criminal offense has been committed, he must notify the attorney general," Friedmann said in a radio interview.
He added that according to Clause 30 of Israel's State Comptroller Law, conclusions reached by the State Comptroller are not admissible as evidence in court.
Moreover, Friedmann emphasized that even a confession made to the Comptroller carries no weight in legal or disciplinary decisions.
The justice minister had previously made similar statements during a speech at Netanya Academic College.
The report by State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss called for Olmert to be investigated for suspected fraud and breach of trust in connection with allegations that he helped grant illicit benefits to a silicate company represented by his former law partner, Uri Messer, while serving as the minister of industry and trade.
Olmert's lawyer rejected the state comptroller's findings against Olmert during his tenure as industry, trade and employment minister, calling the comptroller's report "a disgraceful document."
In a response to the report on Olmert's conduct regarding projects handled by the Industry Trade and Employment Ministry's Investment Center, Adv. Eli Zohar said the comptroller overlooked certain things, made misleading assumptions and reached erroneous conclusions.
Zohar also denied the existence of the "economic ties" cited by Lindenstrauss between Olmert and his former partner in a law firm, Adv. Uri Messer.
According to the comptroller's report, Olmert's involvement in the affair "in spite of the evident conflict of interests raises concerns that ethical conduct was violated." He recommended that the attorney general order a criminal investigation against the prime minister.
Zohar said the Investment Center had decided to give the silicate company a grant before Olmert became involved with the matter. The ministry's chemicals and quarries division had amended a previous decision not to
recognize the company as an approved enterprise. "Yet the comptroller repeated his groundless and misleading statement that the chemicals division had denied the grant," Zohar wrote.
Zohar's argument is based on e-mail messages from Ohad Orenstein, director of the chemicals and quarries division, and on a summary of a meeting between Messer and the director of the Investment Center three days before Olmert dealt with the matter.
The summary of the meeting with Olmert said that "it was agreed that the chemicals and quarries division, which previously issued a negative recommendation to approve the enterprise, will issue an amended recommendation to the Investment Center subject to certain demands."
Zohar wrote that the comptroller was wrong in assuming that there were "economic ties" between Olmert and Messer. The assumption is based on the Supreme Court's verdict in the case of Shimon Sheves, which ruled that Sheves must be convicted for fraud and breach of trust based
on his economic ties with the friends for whom he acted.
Sheves was a director-general of the Prime Minister's Office for Yitzhak Rabin. Olmert and Messer were law partners until 1988, when Olmert withdrew from the partnership, Zohar wrote. Since then the two have remained friends, and Messer has represented Olmert on several private interests, including real estate deals, he wrote.
"The ties between a lawyer and his client are not economic," states Zohar. "The legal services Messer provided Olmert with were given for a lawyer's fee, as is customary and accepted."
Commenting on Lindenstrauss' statement that Olmert's aides pushed to approve the company's request for a grant, Zohar said the comptroller "completely ignores many other cases in which the prime minister's aides expedited the Investment Center's handling of requests, including those of Coca Cola, the Aquaria project, Nilit, Wissotzky Tea, Osem, and others."
The comptroller has released "a disgraceful document," concludes Zohar.