Israeli Police Recommend Indicting Olmert
Israeli police recommended indicting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday. Police say they have collected enough evidence to indict the PM with corruption charges in two different cases.
They 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.’
Furthermore, police told state prosecutors, they are quite sure - and have enough proof to back up their claim - that Olmert billed the same overseas trips several times. The money, they said, was used to finance private trips for himself and his family.
State prosecutors will review the recommendation but the country’s Attorney General is the one who decides whether or not Olmert will have to defend himself in court.
The latter was not surprised, but still angry with the recommendation.
“The only person authorised 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.”
It is unlikely that many Israelis will feel sorry for Olmert. Corruption, of course, is a very serious crime, especially for an elected official. Moreover, Olmert’s popularity hit rock bottom a long time ago, after it became clear he had bungled the war with Hezbollah in 2006. Hezbollah kidnapped several Israeli soldiers, raided the borders, after which Olmert ordered an Israeli offensive into Lebanon, but failed to send enough troops and he failed to give them the tools they needed to truly destroy the terrorist organization. As a result, every political group in the country was disappointed; hawks and doves.
