Police: If PM provides 'reasonable' answer over Leumi affair, case will be closed

Police investigators will question Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tomorrow about his involvement in the privatization of Bank Leumi.

Senior police officials have said the interrogation will be decisive in determining whether to indict Olmert in the case.

The evidence is not unequivocal, they say, so he is likely to escape prosecution if he can supply convincing explanations for what happened.

Olmert is being investigated over suspicions that, in his former role as finance minister, he altered the tender for the bank to benefit a friend who was bidding for it.

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.

"The investigators have prepared for the prime minister's interrogation as they would for a chess match," said a source involved in the probe. "They examined all the responses he is liable to give during his testimony, and have already explored every possible direction in which Olmert is liable to lead them. It is hard to believe that Olmert will succeed in surprising the interrogators."

The interrogation will take place at 9 A.M. in the prime minister's official residence in Jerusalem. It will be conducted by Brigadier General Shlomi Ayalon, the head of the police's fraud squad; Chief Superintendent Eran Kamin, who is in charge of the Leumi probe; and Superintendent Einat Glutman.

The tender for Leumi's privatization was issued in November 2005, about four months after Olmert replaced Benjamin Netanyahu as finance minister. At Olmert's insistence, several changes were made in its terms, including a new method of calculating the exercise price of the options that were included in the sale package.

Olmert said the changes were designed to encourage strategic investors to bid for the bank. However, suspicions later arose that the changes had in fact been aimed at aiding a bid by Australian businessman Frank Lowy, an old friend of Olmert's. Police recently took a deposition from Lowy in Australia.

Barak Ravid adds:

Olmert's bureau published an official statement about the investigation yesterday. "The prime minister has set aside Tuesday and Thursday of this week for giving his version [of events]," the statement said. "He intends to place himself at the investigators' disposal for two entire days, or as long as necessary, so that they can finish their work and go over every aspect of the privatization process with him, leaving no unexamined issues or questions.

"The prime minister is convinced that at the end of the investigation, it will be clear that all the decisions he made about Bank Leumi's privatization process were professional decisions, made after due consideration and consultations with the relevant parties, and no fault will be found with his actions."