The state prosecutor is to charge contractor David Appel for a variety of crimes in a single indictment. He will probably face charges for allegedly bribing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (then foreign minister and an MK) and Industry and Trade Minister Ehud Olmert (then mayor of Jerusalem). Appel will apparently stand accused in two other cases, allegedly bribing Oded Tal, a senior official at the Israel Lands Administration, and allegedly bribing the mayor of Lod, Benny Regev.
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Over the past few weeks, State Attorney Edna Arbel has gathered an "Appel File" to focus the work of law enforcement agencies in the several cases in which the contractor is allegedly involved. Arbel has decided to prepare one well-founded indictment that the prosecution can prove in court, and not to issue several different indictments that would be heard by different judges.
Arbel and other senior officials in the State Attorney's Office understand the power of this indictment will be in the large number of cases it encompasses. They hope the judge will not look at each case separately, but rather see the entire case as an "Appel phenomenon." The prosecution believes that over the years, Appel has succeeded in avoiding legal proceedings against him (with the exception of one, minor conviction).
The most dramatic indictment against Appel is the case of the Greek island. If there is no last-minute change, the state attorney will claim Appel initiated a bribery deal between him and two senior political figures in order to advance a tourism project in Greece.
Yesterday in an interview on Army Radio, Appel claimed that the project he planned (with no assistance from politicians) was not in Greece, but in another country.
Appel is suspected of allegedly involving or attempting to involve Ariel Sharon in this case in two ways. One was by signing a contract between him and Sharon's son Gilad, according to which Gilad would act as a "consultant" and in exchange receive hundreds of thousands of dollars (most of which has already been transferred to Gilad Sharon).
The second way was by allegedly providing logistical assistance and staff for the Likud primaries in 1999, when Ariel Sharon was running against Ehud Olmert for the office of party head.
Appel is also suspected of allegedly involving or attempting to involve Ehud Olmert using similar means. He also allegedly provided logistical assistance and staff to Olmert during his own bid for re-election in the same campaign, and in exchange received Olmert's active support in the Greek project, in exchange for which Olmert allegedly sponsored an evening that was to advance the project, with the participation of the mayor of Athens.
The police are said to have recordings that link the alleged payoffs to politicians with the benefits that Appel allegedly received or was going to receive.
Israeli law does not condition an indictment against the person alleged to have offered a bribe with indictment of the alleged receiver of the bribe.
Therefore, the issuing of the indictment against Appel does not bring about an automatic indictment against Olmert, Ariel Sharon, and Gilad Sharon. The police and the state attorney are in the final stages of the investigation of the Greek Island affair that will include investigation of the prime minister, and perhaps of Olmert as well. It will then be decided whether to issue indictments against them
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