Last update - 00:00 24/09/2007
Mazuz orders police probe of PM over purchase of J'lem home
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz instructed police Monday to open a criminal investigation against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over allegations that he benefited unduly from his purchase of a home on Jerusalem's Cremieux Street.
Olmert is suspected of having received an unreasonably low price on the house, allegedly as a result of his position in government.
The Prime Minister's Bureau issued a statement in response, saying "We are certain and convinced that the Olmert family's purchase of the Cremieux Street home was clean and pure."
"We find the decision to continue the investigation unfortunate, because it is unnecessary," continued the statement.
"The purchase of the home, as was stated in the response given recently to the state comptroller, did not deviate from the market conditions and acceptable value estimates," said the statement. "The prime minister will fully cooperate with the investigation in order to bring it to an end as quickly as possible. We are certain that the investigation will clearly find that the purchase of the home was ethical and at a proper price."
Once the initial phase of the investigation is complete, the findings will be presented to the attorney general and the state prosecutor, who will decide whether to continue the probe. As is customary for investigations of senior officials, Olmert can only be questioned under caution with Mazuz?s prior consent.
Mazuz's decision was based on an investigation conducted by State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, which found that that Olmert received a $480,000 discount on the home - $330,000 more than the standard discount for paying in cash, as the prime minister did.
"[The fact that] a major public figure, a government minister, receives such a large discount on the purchase of a home, requires a detailed explanation without delay, according to the norms of transparency, ethics, and proper administration," wrote attorney Rina Karmef from the State Comptroller's Office.
The home Olmert purchased was one of several residential units that were part of a project that necessitated the transfer of a historic Templar building designated for preservation. When Olmert purchased the home, the project had yet to receive the necessary authorizations for the transfer of the historical building. According to Lindenstrauss, officials in the Jerusalem Municipality granted "excessive priority" to the project in order to accelerate the authorization process.
"Until the [prime minister] signed the contract, the full dismantlement and reconstruction of a structure was never done in Jerusalem, and only the decision on dismantling and reconstructing the structure allowed the Olmert family to receive the apartment in the agreed upon conditions," said the findings. "Advancing the granting of authorizations in a special and irregular manner to a public figure 'because he has rights in the city' is an improper act that harms the norms of proper administration."
The case is one of several involving suspicions against the prime minister, and was widely considered the weakest of the three affairs under study.
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."
Another of the affairs 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.
A third involves suspicions that he made political appointments at the Small Business Authority.
Both of these 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 decide after the Sukkot holiday on whether to order an additional police investigation into Olmert regarding these and other affairs relating to his term as trade minister.