Region | Palestinian Territories
Police seize papers in Olmert bribery investigation
Israeli police said on Monday they searched Occupied Jerusalem's city hall and confiscated documents as part of a bribery investigation that could force out Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
- Agencies
- Published: 09:20 May 13, 2008
Occupied Jerusalem: Israeli police said on Monday they searched Occupied Jerusalem's city hall and confiscated documents as part of a bribery investigation that could force out Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Olmert admitted last week that he took cash from an American businessman at the centre of the investigation but he has denied any wrongdoing. Olmert said he would resign if indicted.
The investigation could overshadow a visit this week by US President George W. Bush to mark Israel's 60th birthday and to promote peacemaking with the Palestinians.
A police spokesman said, "Today the National Fraud unit carried out a search in the offices of the Jerusalem municipality and confiscated documents and other materials as part of its ongoing investigation involving the prime minister."
Legal sources say police suspect that Olmert took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the businessman, New York Jewish financier Morris Talansky, over a decade in coded payments.
Olmert said any funds from Talansky were contributions to two campaigns for Jerusalem mayor in the 1990s and for posts in his former political party, Likud, in 1999 and 2002.
Current Israeli law broadly prohibits political donations of more than a few hundred dollars.
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