Last update - 00:00 03/10/2007
Dichter: I did not call for end to investigation into PM Olmert
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter denied Tuesday calling for an end to investigations of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert while he is in office. Dichter's comment, reported in Haaretz Tuesday, has provoked outrage and sparked calls for him to resign. However, Dichter told Army Radio Tuesday he had not been speaking about Olmert at all in his statement but only of future prime ministers.
Both Labor MKs Ophir Pines-Paz and Shelly Yachimovich Tuesday called for Dichter's resignation in response to his statement to halt probes of prime ministers in office.
"Dichter cannot remain in office even one more day. The minister in charge of law enforcement is signaling to the police that it should not investigate the prime minister," Pines-Paz, head of the Knesset Interior Committee, said. "He is obstructing the police investigation, implying that Olmert is immune and that he is above the law," he said.
Pines-Paz added: "Prime ministers will be able to commit crimes with impunity, because investigations conducted years after the act are ineffective."
MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said Dichter should resign immediately. He, too, said the minister had conveyed to police investigators, who are under his charge, "that they should not hasten their inquiries and bring the criminal to justice. He is unfit to serve as head of Israel's police."
MK Gilad Erdan (Likud) said that "Dichter is fit to head the police in the dark regimes of banana republics. Instead of acting to ensure a complete investigation of the prime minister, Dichter is sending a hidden message to the police investigators, telling them they need not hurry in their inquiries into the prime minister."
Immigrant Absorption Minister Jacob Edery (Kadima) objected to Dichter's proposal, which he said was unegalitarian. "It's superfluous, and the timing is wretched," he said. "In a democracy everyone is equal before the law until the end, and the significance should be clear."
Dichter said in the interview to Haaretz that Olmert need not suspend himself because of the investigations into his affairs.
"If he feels accused or that he is suspected of things he did not do, there is no reason for him to step down. This goes for other public officials as well," he said.
"If an investigation were conducted of me for something I was certain I hadn't done, there would be no reason for me to step down from a ministerial post unless the law required me to do so. A politician who's certain of his innocence has no reason to step down from office."
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