The Attorney General's office of Israel has ordered a criminal
investigation into Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the justice ministry
said on Monday.
Olmert is suspected of purchasing a Jerusalem flat from a friend
at a price of US$320,000, far lower than the property's market
value, in return for helping a construction firm to gain illegal
building permits, local media reported.
In response to Mazuz's decision, the Prime Minister's Office
said in a statement on Monday that "We are certain and convinced
that the Olmert family's purchase of the Cremieux Street home was
clean and pure," according to a Ha'aretz report.
"We find the decision to continue the investigation unfortunate,
because it is unnecessary" and they found the purchase did not
deviate from the market conditions and acceptable value estimates,
the statement said.
It said Olmert will "fully cooperate" with the investigation in
order to bring it to an end as quickly as possible.
Once the initial phase of the investigation is completed, the
findings will be presented to the attorney general and the state
prosecutor, who will decide whether to continue the probe. As is
customary for investigations of senior officials, Olmert can only
be questioned under Mazuz's prior consent.
Some Knesset (parliament) members from opposition parties
welcomed Mazuz's decision.
Knesset member (MK) Yossi Beilin, chairman of Meretz-Yahad, said
the decision "seriously clouds Olmert's ability to lead Israel
through this critical time," adding that Olmert would have to
resign should the investigation result in an indictment.
MK Arieh Eldad, from National Union-National Religious Party,
called on the police to speed up its investigation "and not to let
the prime minister evade trial with his well-known rejection
maneuvers."
"Mazuz's decision is a slap in the face of all those who tried
to delegitimize the state comptroller and the judicial system on
the prime minister's behalf," said Likud MK Gideon Sa'ar.
The case is one of several involving suspicions against the
prime minister, and was widely considered the weakest of the three
affairs under study.
Another of the affairs 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 Industry,
Trade, and Labor Ministry's Investment Center. A third involves
suspicions that he made political appointments at the Small
Business Authority.
Both of these cases, which involve Olmert's term as industry,
trade, and labor minister, began with an investigation and
subsequent scathing report by State Comptroller Micha
Lindenstrauss.
Mazuz is expected to decide after the Sukkot holiday, or Feast
of Tabernacles, on whether to order an additional police
investigation into Olmert regarding these.
(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2007)
