Home>News Center>World
         
 

Israeli prosecutor: Indict Sharon
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-03-29 08:42

Israel's chief prosecutor on Sunday officially recommended bringing charges against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a corruption scandal that could drive him from office and derail his Gaza Strip withdrawal plan.
Israeli prosecutor: Indict Sharon
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pauses prior to the weekly cabinet meeting in his Jerusalem office Sunday March 28, 2004. [AP]
The Justice Ministry said State Attorney Edna Arbel had submitted a draft indictment to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, who would have the final say on whether to put the 76-year-old prime minister on trial for alleged bribe-taking.

A Justice Ministry source estimated it could take Mazuz, a career civil servant widely regarded as without any political agenda, up to two months to decide whether to charge Sharon.

The developments plunged Sharon deeper into trouble two weeks before a visit to Washington, where he hopes to win U.S. President Bush's backing for his plan to unilaterally evacuate Jewish settlements in Gaza and some in the West Bank.

It cast a cloud of suspicion over Sharon which may hamper his efforts to obtain cabinet backing for his Gaza pullout plan.

Sharon's aides declined to comment on the matter.

But one of his confidants told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper the central issue was "whether there is sufficient evidence which justifies throwing the country into a whirlpool."

The case centers on payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars that an Israeli land developer and Likud stalwart made to Sharon's son Gilad, whom he hired in the late 1990s as an adviser on a never-completed project to build a Greek resort.

Israeli prosecutor: Indict Sharon
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arrives at the weekly cabinet meeting at his Jerusalem office March 28, 2004.  [Reuters]
Suspicions focus on whether Sharon, foreign minister at the time, tried to help win Greek government approval for the enterprise, promoted by Likud kingmaker David Appel, now on trial on related bribery charges. Sharon denies any wrongdoing.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL QUOTED AS SAYING CASE IS "BORDERLINE"

Legal experts quoted by television networks said the case against Sharon would have to be iron-clad for Mazuz to indict.

Channel Two television quoted Mazuz as saying the case was "borderline" and "problematic." It also quoted Yohanan Danino, the lead police investigator in the probe against Sharon, as saying: "There are lots of dark (questionable) spots in this case but they do not ... tie Sharon in a direct and logical line to receiving bribes."

Some cabinet ministers said Sharon should quit if Mazuz decided to indict him. Others said he should suspend himself.

Arbel's recommendation gave heart to one cabinet minister from a pro-settler party that has threatened to quit Sharon's government if he goes ahead with the Gaza pullout plan.

"I admire the courage of Edna Arbel...I admire this sort of judicial caliber," Tourism Minister Benny Elon told Army radio.

A government source said that under Israeli law Sharon would not have to resign until exhausting his final court appeal against any conviction. But recent opinion polls have shown he would be under huge public pressure to quit if charged.

In legal limbo, Sharon will press Bush on April 14 to back his disengagement plan.

Sharon has proposed to pull hard-to-defend Israeli settlers and troops out of the Gaza Strip as part of a plan to impose a separation on the Palestinians on Israel's terms if the moribund "road map" to a negotiated peace, promoted by Washington, fails.

The Palestinians say that in reality, Sharon aims to annex large Jewish settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank.

Sharon has been pushed from office before. As defense chief during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, he quit after an inquiry found him indirectly responsible for the massacre by a pro-Israeli Lebanese group of hundreds of Palestinian refugees.



USS Park Royal crew await for Rice
Coffin of Milosevic flew to Belgrade
Kidnapping spree in Gaza Strip
 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

Australia, US, Japan praise China for Asia engagement

 

   
 

Banker: China doing its best on flexible yuan

 

   
 

Hopes high for oil pipeline deal

 

   
 

Possibilities of bird flu outbreaks reduced

 

   
 

Milosevic buried after emotional farewell

 

   
 

China considers trade contracts in India

 

   
  Journalist's alleged killers held in Iraq
   
  No poisons found in Milosevic's body
   
  US, Britain, France upbeat on Iran agreement
   
  Fatah officials call for Abbas to resign
   
  Sectarian violence increases in Iraq
   
  US support for troops in Iraq hits new low
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Israel threatens to kill entire Hamas leadership
   
Hamas targets Sharon to avenge Yassin
   
Hamas leader warns all Israelis face attack
   
US vetoes UN measure on Yassin's death
   
Palestinian intellectuals, officials urge restraint
Manufacturers, Exporters, Wholesalers - Global trade starts here.
Advertisement