RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM, 3 May 2008 — Israeli Police yesterday questioned Prime Minister Ehud Olmert under caution at his official residence in Jerusalem for allegedly receiving bribe from an American businessman based in Israel.
The police questioning, conducted by detectives from the National Fraud Unit for 90 minutes, was supposed to be secret, but was leaked by Israeli Channel 2 TV Thursday evening, with the daily Yediot Ahronot providing details of the fresh allegations in its today’s edition.
The Israeli paper reported that the allegations are that Olmert received bribes, in cash, from an unnamed “American businessman” operating in Israel. The allegations, like the three other investigations launched against misconduct by the prime minister, deal with the period when he served as Minister of Industry and Trade.
The urgency of the police questioning, according to Yediot Ahronot, stems from the fact that Olmert’s former chief of staff Shula Zaken was interrogated Tuesday for six hours and police are trying to prevent the two from coordinating their versions of the events in question.
According to the Yediot report, the sums involved were “huge” and were received in cash, both in Israel and abroad. The businessman suspected of paying the bribes was also questioned by police and is said to be “cooperating fully with investigators.”
The newest scandal involving Olmert was not the result of investigative reports or investigations by the state comptroller, like the previous ones, but arose from information culled during the investigations of the three previous corruption cases.
