Olmert to Face Corruption Grill

Source: Alalam.ir, 11-07-2008

AL-QUDS-‘Israeli' police investigators will grill the regime's prime minister about corruption suspicions in the latest development in a case that could force Ehud Olmert out of office.

Police say investigators will question Olmert at his official al-Quds residence on Friday.

This will be the third time he will be questioned in a case focusing on money Olmert allegedly received from an American Jewish businessman.

Morris Talansky says he gave Olmert hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash-stuffed envelopes before he became prime minister two years ago.

The testimony has badly damaged Olmert's already poor public standing and could end his political career.

Olmert has denied any wrongdoing but has said he will resign if indicted.

But Olmert has said he accepted some money but that it was used legitimately to fund election campaigns.

On Thursday, Olmert's centrist Kadima Party approved a motion to hold a leadership election in mid-September that could lead to his ouster.

By a quick show of hands at the party's main headquarters in a Tel Aviv suburb, the party's decision-making council of lawmakers and activists ratified Olmert's pledge last month to the left-of-center Labour Party to hold a party primary within three months.

That deal had been part of a compromise Olmert had struck with Labour's leader, war minister Ehud Barak, to keep Labour from bolting Olmert's ruling coalition and force an early national election over the corruption probes against Olmert.

Kadima's 200-member council left it up to the head of an election panel to set a date for the leadership contest in the coming weeks.

It recommended that the vote be held between September 14 and 17.

While it wasn't certain the decision would actually topple Olmert, and ‘Israeli' media mused over whether he would actually have to quit as prime minister even if he lost in Kadima, Olmert's main party rivals sounded a note of triumph.