Last update - 00:00 09/10/2007
AG opposes moves to postpone criminal probes against Olmert
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said Monday that he opposes moves to postpone criminal investigations into the dealings of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert until the end of his term.
Mazuz's comments come on the same day as Olmert was questioned over suspicions that he acted to promote the interests of a businessman friend during the state's sale of Bank Leumi.
Several calls to postpone the criminal investigations against the prime minister were made over recent days by various public figures, including Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann.
Mazuz's office submitted a letter to the non-profit watchdog organization Omets on Monday saying "the attorney general opposes recent proposals made by various people seeking to prevent the prime minister from being investigated or postpone these investigations."
According to Mazuz's assistant, this view is strengthened by "the circumstances today, where the prime minister faces criminal investigations in two separate matters - the Bank Leumi affair and the sale of the house on Cremieux Street - and investigations into other matters are being decided upon."
The attorney general's office issued a statement saying that an additional investigation against Olmert is currently being considered over the politically-motivated appointments made by the prime minister and exposed recently by Channel 10. The statement added that Mazuz will decide whether to launch an investigation into an additional affair, concerning Olmert's term as Industry, Trade and Labor minister, within the next two weeks.
However, Mazuz refused calls to launch criminal probes against those who proposed postponing the investigation against Olmert. He said "this issue does not belong to the criminal realm, but to the public arena, and in this arena things must be examined."
After 5-hour session, PM to be probed again Thursday
Police on Tuesday questioned Olmert for five hours about his role in the privatization of Bank Leumi, with the goal of trying to determine whether he altered the tender to help a friend who was bidding. The questioning will be resumed on Thursday.
Investigators from the National Fraud Investigation Unit asked Olmert what his involvement in convincing Australian businessman Frank Lowy to enter the bidding, whether any of the changes he introduced into the tender were at Lowy's instigation, and why he did not inform anyone that his longtime friendship with Lowy created a prima facie conflict of interest.
Olmert, who was finance minister when the tender was issued in 2005, persuaded ministry officials to make several changes in the tender, including a new method of calculating the exercise price of the options that were part of the sale package. Olmert said the changes were designed to encourage strategic investors to bid for the bank, but suspicions later arose that they had been aimed at promoting Lowy's bid.
Police officers have warned in recent weeks that proving wrongdoing on Olmert's part will be difficult. First, since Lowy ultimately withdrew from the tender, it will be hard to prove that Olmert's changes were designed to help him acquire the bank. Moreover, there is no evidence that Lowy gave Olmert any kind of quid pro quo for his alleged help. Thus, at most, the premier is likely to face charges of breach of trust for taking an active role in the process despite his apparent conflict of interest.
Officers said prior to Tuesday's investigation that Olmert's testimony would be decisive in determining whether to indict him. Since the evidence is not unequivocal, they explained, he is likely to escape prosecution if he can supply convincing explanations.
Police sources said they could not predict whether the interrogation would end Tuesday, or whether another session would be needed.
The prime minister is the last person to be questioned in the case, so immediately after his interrogation, police will begin reviewing their findings and formulating their recommendation before submitting the material to the State Prosecutor's Office.
Zelekha: Mazuz is a 'weak person'
Meanwhile, outgoing Accountant-General Yaron Zelekha said Tuesday that he was reluctant to go to Mazuz with allegations against Olmert because he considered the attorney general to be a "weak person."
Zelekha told Israel Radio that he saw Mazuz's weakness to be "the reason he was appointed to his position in the first place." He said he would prefer to bring his complaints to the state comptroller, a move he called "certainly not routine, but [one] that speaks for itself."
During the interview, Zelekha brushed off claims that he was operating a lone war "against a corrupt world."
"That is a sick mantra being disseminated by the same gang of criminal suspects and their associates," he said.
"I have never claimed that everyone is corrupt. Most of the state service is pure and straight. There is a specific problem here of a few people who have based themselves among the elite in illegitimate ways."
The outgoing accountant general added that had Mazuz's sister Yemima, legal adviser to the Finance Ministry, not "insisted on closing her eyes throughout the process of tender? it is doubtful Olmert would have succeeded in coming so close to succeeding in the plot he webbed."
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