State prosecutor favors more criminal probes of Olmert for influence-peddling

State Prosecutor Eran Shendar has recommended opening criminal investigations against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in two additional cases, Shendar said in an interview with Israel Radio last night.

The prime minister is already under criminal investigation over the privatization of Bank Leumi and is to be questioned under caution in that case in the near future.

Both of the two new cases involve Olmert's conduct in his previous role as industry, trade and employment minister. One involves suspicions that Olmert gave special consideration to a company represented by his friend and former law partner, Uri Messer, in grant allocations by the ministry's Investment Center. The other involves suspicions that he made political appointments at the Small Business Authority. Both cases began with an investigation and subsequent scathing report by State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss.

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz had asked the police to make various preliminary inquiries before he made a decision on the cases, but these inquiries were recently completed, allowing Shendar and his staff to review the findings and formulate their recommendations. Shendar said that he has submitted these recommendations to Mazuz, and that Mazuz would make a decision in the near future.

Mazuz, however, is said to be proceeding very carefully before launching another criminal investigation of Olmert. Although the evidence required to do so is the same as with any other citizen, the decision could have enormous public, political and economic ramifications.

Shendar still plans to decide himself whether to try Olmert in the Bank Leumi affair, once that investigation is concluded, and he said that an indictment was "very possible." However, he added, if the probe concludes only after his retirement - which he announced several months ago, but for which no date has yet been set - he would not ask to extend his term for this purpose. That would be "against my ideology," he said, as "such a statement would be like saying that the person who came after me was bringing extraneous considerations to his decision."

Shendar said that in the Bank Leumi probe, all that remains to be done is to question the prime minister under caution, after which the police would make its recommendation to the State Prosecutor's Office. Shendar or his successor would then decide whether to indict Olmert or close the case. Mazuz recused himself from this case because his sister, Attorney Yemima Mazuz, was legal advisor to the Finance Ministry when Bank Leumi was privatized. Olmert was finance minister at the time.