Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson was questioned yesterday for the second time by police for allegedly stealing funds from the National Worker's Organization.

The interview, which took place at the police economic investigations unit in Lod, lasted eight hours, and the police said the minister will be invited for more interviews in the coming weeks.

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Hirchson is suspected of stealing, receiving bribes, fraud, breach of confidence, and falsifying documents, during the period in which he served as chairman of the organization.

According to police sources, Hirchson did not convince the detectives that the large sums of money that were deposited into this account were acquired through legal means.

Police detectives asked Hirchson to explain unusual deposits in his account at a Bank Hapoalim branch in Tel Aviv. According to police investigators, nearly 1 million shekels were deposited in the account in dozens of separate deposits. Some of the funds were deposited by the minister's son, Ofer Hirchson, but because he had been in financial difficulties during the period in question, it is not clear to detectives how he could have made the transfers to his father's account.

The police suspect that the source of some of the money is Nili, a non-governmental organizations, other NGOs and the NWO.

Sources familiar with the investigation said the detective presented the minister, for the first time, with detailed information in their possession and asked him difficult questions.

According to the sources, the explanations Hirchson offered during the interview will be examined in the coming days, but for now they appear to be less than convincing.

Police investigators suspect that the extent of the theft in which Hirchson is involved is estimated to be as large as NIS 10 million. The investigation is focusing on fraud and embezzlement in Nili, the Wolker Fund, the March of the Living association, and other groups affiliated with the NWO.

On the matter of Nili, the police suspect that Hirchson received envelopes with hundreds of thousands of shekels over many years, and also received envelopes filled with dollars prior to trips abroad.

Meanwhile, the High Court of Justice rejected the petition of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel demanding the immediate removal of Hirchson from his post at Finance Minister.

The Justices, Asher Grunis, Miriam Naor, and Esther Hayut, ruled that the petition of the organization was made too soon, since it has only been a few days since Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked Attorney General Menachem Mazuz for a legal opinion on whether Hirchson should be dismissed from the cabinet in view of the investigations against him.