Court: Omri Sharon sentencing to occur before elections

The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court yesterday rejected MK Omri Sharon's request to delay the sentencing phase of his trial until after the general elections in March.

The trial is scheduled to be resumed on January 23.

Sharon's defense attorney, Dan Sheinman, argued that his client would become the media focus in the election campaign, and that parties will use the conviction and sentencing in their campaigns against Kadima, the party headed by his father, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

This could seriously hinder the job of the defense, Sheinman said. "The media and public figures already have uttered unbridled remarks despite the fact that the matter is pending the court's ruling," he said.

Sheinman said Sharon's decision not to run in the upcoming elections also enables postponement of the court debate. He also asked the court to consider Sharon's confession when deciding on the request to delay the proceedings.

Nevertheless, Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court President Judge Edna Bekenstein accepted the prosecution's argument that the proceedings continue on schedule. The court offered no further explanation of the decision.

Sharon was convicted of a number of serious offenses, among them fictitious registration of corporate documents, which carries up to a five-year term; lying under oath and violations of the election code, which are punishable by fines. Under a plea bargain concluded in November, the prosecution presented an amended indictment from which the original charges of corporate fraud and breaching corporate trust were to be modified to a lesser charge.

According to the indictment, Sharon - who had been appointed by his father to run his September 1999 campaign for the Likud party's leadership - received NIS 6 million in campaign financing from corporations in Israel and abroad between July 1999 and February 2000.

The prosecution said the money significantly exceeds the funding caps. Sharon was accused of funneling the money into a company called Annex Research, which allegedly was founded for that purpose. The campaign allegedly paid most suppliers and service providers through Annex Research rather than via the Sharon camp's official bank account.