RAMALLAH: Israel’s State Prosecutor’s Office yesterday informed the Jerusalem District Court that it will not give Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s attorneys any more material from the new investigation before cross-examination of US financier Morris Talansky.
Days before the cross-examination of Talansky in the illicit funding case against Olmert, new allegations emerged that he had asked several charities and institutions to pay for the same work-related trips abroad and then used the excess funds to pay for private trips for himself and his family.
The State Prosecution said that the connection between the two cases was small and that the material from the new case would disrupt the Talansky case.
Earlier in the day, Olmert’s children came to their father’s defense. “We want to unequivocally clarify that our father explicitly told us that the plane tickets given to us were a gift from him paid for out of his own pocket,” read a statement released by Olmert’s children, Michal, Dana, Shaul and Ariel.
Meanwhile, one of Olmert’s lawyers, Roi Blecher, said that the new allegations should have been examined privately and that the prime minister needn’t have been questioned under warning.
Speaking to Israeli Radio, Blecher said that comments in the media by officials close to the investigation were “unacceptable, ugly and unfair.” He said that there were logical and simple explanations for the allegations, but that he preferred not to elaborate so as not to disrupt the inquiry.
