Last update - 00:00 23/09/2007
AG expected to decide soon on new criminal probe of Olmert
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz is expected to make a decision after the Sukkot holiday on whether to launch a new criminal investigation into Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
The investigation would focus on several affairs involving the prime minister. In a letter sent Sunday to MK Ophir Pines-Paz, Mazuz aide Ran Nizri wrote, "We will make every effort to speed up the handling of these cases, and we believe that the attorney general will soon make a decision on the various affairs."
One of the affairs being considered by involves suspicions that Olmert gave special consideration to a company represented by his friend and former law partner, Uri Messer, in grant allocations by the Industry, Trade, and Labor Ministry's Investment Center.
The second involves suspicions that he made political appointments at the Small Business Authority.
Both cases, which involve Olmert's term as industry, trade, and labor minister, began with an investigation and subsequent scathing report by State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss.
Mazuz is expected to launch a single criminal investigation that will include both of those affairs as well as a few others relating to Olmert's tenure in the ministry.
The third affair involves Olmert's purchase of a home on Jerusalem's Cremieux Street at what Lindenstrauss found to be an above-standard discount. Mazuz is expected to close the case on the matter.