Israeli police on Sunday recommended indicting beleaguered Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with corruption charges in two different cases, but the premier's lawyers dismissed the move as irrelevant.Police said they had gathered enough evidence to indict Olmert on charges of accepting bribes and breaching public trust over suspicions he had unlawfully accepted cash-stuffed envelopes from a US businessman. Police also recommended that Olmert be indicted over suspicions he had billed the same overseas trips several times over, allegedly using the ill-gotten gains to pay for private trips for himself and his family.
The two allegations cover the 13 years before he took office, when he served as mayor of Jerusalem and as trade and industry minister.
The police advice will be submitted to state prosecutors who will review the evidence and make their own recommendation. While police and state prosecutors can recommend a prosecution, the formal decision to indict a prime minister lies with Attorney General Menahem Mazuz, who is expected to make a decision within the coming weeks.
Olmert has been dogged by multiple corruption investigations for months and on July 30 announced he would step down after his centrist Kadima party selects a new leader in an election among party members on September 17.
Olmert's attorneys said in response that the police recommendation has no meaning. "The only person authorized by the law to decide whether to indict a prime minister is the attorney general. He has the authority and he bears the responsibility over the issue," his lawyers said in a statement. "The police recommendations are meaningless. It would have been appropriate for the police to completely avoid expressing its views on issues that are not under its jurisdiction and its authority."
| They keep sending signals, and Olmert keep ignoring them ... |