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Olmert confidant refused to answer questions about cash that premier allegedly received By Tomer Zarchin Attorney Uri Messer, whom police had hoped would prove a key witness in one of the investigations against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - the Morris Talansky case - has decided not to cooperate with police. During a three-hour interrogation under caution on June 18, Messer systematically refused to answer questions about the case, in which American Jewish businessman Talansky is suspected of giving Olmert some $150,000 over the course of about a decade. Advertisement Messer was also questioned about allegations that while serving as industry and trade minister, Olmert used his longstanding friendship with the minister to obtain unwarranted benefits from the ministry for his clients. Haaretz has obtained the full nine-page transcript of the interrogation, excerpts of which are being published here for the first time. The transcript reveals some of the difficulties in the investigation - specifically, the difficulty in proving that Olmert was aware of all the links along the chain that Talansky's money traveled. Messer served as trustee for two bank accounts during the period in question: one to finance Olmert's successful campaign for mayor of Jerusalem, and one to finance his unsuccessful run for the Likud Party chairmanship. Police are still not certain exactly how much money from Talansky made its way into these accounts via Olmert's former office manager, Shula Zaken. The interrogation began with Messer announcing that he had no intention of answering any more of the police's questions, because things he had said "off the record, man to man" during previous interrogations had been published on the front pages of newspapers in early June. "Until now, I have fully answered all the questions you asked me, both 'on the record' and 'off the record,'" Messer said. "And then, two weeks ago, I saw things I told you 'off the record,' man to man, in the lead headline of the paper. For me, that was a watershed. It hurt me very deeply, and therefore, I do not intend to continue answering questions beyond what I have answered to date." Superintendents Iris Barak and Tzachi Chavkin responded that they, too, deplored the leaks, and urged him not to foil their efforts to get to the bottom of the case due to the media reports. But Messer was adamant. "First, everything I say here sooner or later reaches the media," he complained. "Second, I was very deeply hurt. Something broke inside me, and it can't be healed. Therefore, I don't intend to continue answering questions beyond what I've answered to date." Nevertheless, the investigators insisted on posing their questions. The first question they asked related to the stash of dollars, in cash, that Messer kept for Olmert, first in a safe in his office and later in a strongbox in Bank Leumi. "Who else had a key to the office safe?" they asked. When Messer refused to answer, they continued: "The material we have indicates that on December 24, 2003, Talansky gave Shula Zaken a large sum of money, $72,500. Shula gave $7,500 of this money directly to Olmert, and the rest, $65,000, she gave to you. We would like you to give us details about this large sum that Shula gave you ... What did you do with the money after you received it?" When Messer again refused to answer, they tried a different tack: "During your [previous] interrogations, you said that you spoke with Talansky several times about the money Talansky gave to Shula and Olmert, which afterward came to you. For instance, in your interrogation of April 30, 2008, you said: 'From my conversations with Talansky, I was able to understand that the money Talansky gave Shula Zaken was transferred to me to keep for Olmert.' Which of the sums that Talansky transferred did the two of you discuss?" Later, Barak and Chavkin asked Messer when exactly he returned a sum of $150,000 to Olmert, via Zaken. During his previous interrogations, Messer had said that he did so after he decided to stop serving as Olmert's banker. They also asked him for details about a document in their possession detailing his visits to the strongbox in Bank Leumi. Again, Messer refused to answer. Next, they asked about money that was transferred from Talansky's account in America to one of the Bank Leumi accounts for which Messer served as trustee - the one that financed Olmert's bid for the Likud leadership. These included a $60,000 transfer on June 17, 1999, a $50,000 transfer on June 21, 1999, and another transfer - for which the transcript gives no date - of 25,000 pounds sterling. Messer replied that he had nothing to say. "What involvement in and/or knowledge of these transfers ... or of the use made of this money, did Olmert have?" the investigators continued, again with no response. Barak and Chavkin also asked about the deficit that accrued in the account of the United Jerusalem organization, which financed the bulk of Olmert's campaign for mayor of Jerusalem. During his previous interrogations, they noted, Messer had said that money received from Talansky was used to cover this deficit. That money was supposed to have been used only as collateral for the debt, but in early 2002, when no other way of covering the deficit had been found, the Talansky money was used to repay the debt. "Isn't it true that Talansky asked you when the money would be returned to him?" they demanded. The investigators also charged that "the entire construct" of the account in which the Talansky money was deposited - the one for which Messer served as trustee, and which served as collateral for United Jerusalem's debts - was intended from the start to deceive the state comptroller by concealing the true source of the money that was ultimately used to pay off the organization's debts. When Messer declined to be drawn into responding, the interrogators asked why he had agreed to pay the fine that the comptroller levied on United Jerusalem, rather than covering the deficit with the funds in the Talansky account. Once again, Messer refused to answer. Should Olmert be indicted, police can still call Messer to the witness stand on the basis of his earlier police interrogations, during which he gave detailed answers to the questions he was asked. Should he refuse to answer questions in court, he could be declared a hostile witness, which would enable prosecutors to submit his earlier police testimony to the court as evidence. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Hezbollah's pleasure For Israelis, the release of Kuntar is a form of self-inflicted torture. Exchange timeline How the prisoner exchange with Hezbollah will be carried out.

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