A criminal investigation was ordered yesterday into allegations that Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, bought a luxury home on the cheap in return for political favours.
The latest scandal broke only months after rape accusations forced Moshe Katsav to step down as President when he admitted lesser charges of sexual harassment and obstruction of justice.
Mr Olmert’s office denied that, while Mayor of Jerusalem, he had accepted a “significant discount” on a house in a plush area of the city in return for granting construction permits to the company selling him the property.
“We are certain and convinced that the Olmert family’s purchase of the Cremieux Street home was clean and pure,” a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s office said. “This is a needless investigation.”
The criminal investigation was announced just as Mr Olmert was beginning to regain some standing in opinion polls. His popularity slumped over his leadership during last year’s Lebanon war, when the army failed to crush the Hezbollah guerrilla group, which had kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed several more.
Menachem Mazuz, the Attorney-General who pursued the Katsav case, asked police to open the investigation after the State Comptroller found that Mr Olmert acquired the house at $330,000 below market value. In return, he allegedly expedited contracts for the same company to allow the removal of a historic building in Jerusalem, clearing the way for residential development.
The inquiry is one of several scandals involving the Prime Minister, who came to power after Ariel Sharon – himself the focus of investigations into alleged financial wrongdoing – suffered a massive stroke last year. Police are already looking into whether Mr Olmert used his position as Finance Minister to favour friends while privatising Israel’s second-largest bank in 2005. Mr Olmert has denied any culpability in that case too.
Mr Mazuz is contemplating a third investigation into whether Mr Olmer used his position as Trade and Industry Minister in 2003 to appoint cronies to a government-funded business authority and to secure state funding for his former law partner’s business venture.
Public confidence in the Israeli political establishment was already rocked by the rape charges against Mr Katsav this year. Mr Mazuz dropped the charges – the most serious levelled at an Israeli president, and which carried a potential jail sentence of 20 years – after Mr Katsav agreed to a plea bargain that helped him to avoid prison time but forced him to step down.
Even if Mr Olmert weathers the latest scandal, he is expected to face a rough ride next year when a final official report into the conduct of the Lebanon war is released by the Winograd Committee. Critics accuse him of having blundered into the war with no real plan or clear goals.
Topic: Ehud Olmert faces new sleaze charges (Read 3249 times)