Former Israeli PM indicted for property scandal
ISRAELI former prime minister Ehud Olmert was indicted Thursday alongside a number of other people for allegedly taking bribes in a massive property scandal, judicial sources said.
The allegations stem from Olmert’s tenure as Jerusalem mayor and will add to the woes of the former premier, who is already on trial on three unrelated counts of fraud and bribery.
Olmert is accused of allegedly accepting bribes to smooth the way for the construction of the huge Holyland residential complex in Jerusalem during his tenure as mayor in the 1990s.
“An indictment has been served on Olmert and others,” a spokeswoman for the courts administration said.
Last March, the justice ministry said Israeli prosecutors were poised to file charges against 18 people, including Olmert, for allegedly taking bribes when he was mayor of Jerusalem.
“From the evidence, it appears that a long list of public servants at the Jerusalem municipality apparently received bribes to promote the Holyland project and the interests of its developers,” a ministry statement said at the time.
In April 2010, prosecutors officially named Olmert as a key suspect in the Holyland affair, in which he is suspected of having taken bribes totaling some $A389,000.
He has been questioned at least three times by police and has denied all the charges.
Olmert resigned under pressure in September 2008 after police recommended that he be indicted in several other cases of graft that all relate to a period before he became premier in 2006.
He was accused of unlawfully accepting gifts of cash-stuffed envelopes from Jewish-American businessman Morris Talanski and of multiple-billing for foreign trips.
He also was charged with cronyism in connection with an investment center that he oversaw when he was trade and industry minister between 2003 and 2006.
