Israel’s chief prosecutor on Sunday recommended charging Ariel Sharon with corruption for allegedly accepting bribes from a land developer, prompting demands from within the government for the prime minister to resign.
The prosecutor, Edna Arbel, submitted the draft indictment to the attorney general, who will decide whether to proceed with the charges over the coming weeks after hearing an opinion from the police.
Sharon’s office declined to comment, but his lawyer issued a statement saying that leaks to the press revealing Arbel’s intent were part of a politically motivated campaign by the chief prosecutor to malign the prime minister.
None the less, the political pressure on the Israeli leader was growing yesterday. A member of Sharon’s coalition government, the national infrastructure minister, Yosef Paritzky of the Shinui party, called for the prime minister’s resignation.
”Under such circumstances, the prime minister should resign,” he told Israel Radio. ”I would expect him to say today that he is ready to go home and fight from there to prove his innocence.”
Other members of Shinui backed the call and questioned whether the party could remain in the government.
The Labour opposition said it believed Sharon’s days in office were numbered.
”The government attorney general cannot ignore the state prosecutor’s recommendation,” said a Labour MP, Ophir Pines-Paz. ”The prime minister has to suspend himself until the attorney general’s final decision is made.”
But legal analysts noted that the previous attorney general rejected the chief prosecutor’s recommendation to indict the former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the former president, Ezer Weizman, on far less serious charges.
In a case known as the Greek island affair, Arbel has drawn up a draft indictment against Sharon for allegedly receiving a bribe from an Israeli businessman to use his position as foreign minister five years ago to pressure the Greek government to approve construction of a casino on an Aegean island.
The business man, David Appel, has been indicted for allegedly bribing Sharon a total of about R4,6-million paying the prime minister’s son, Gilad, for non-existent work and transferring money to the Sharon family ranch in the Negev desert.
Appel allegedly kept paying Gilad even after the casino plan collapsed to get Sharon to use his influence in the businessman’s favour in other land deals inside Israel.
Arbel reached the conclusion that Sharon could not have been unaware of the nature of the relationship between his son and Appel. In one secretly recorded conversation, the businessman tells the future prime minister that Gilad will earn large amounts of money.
The state attorney’s hand has been strengthened after prosecutors on her staff who had previously expressed doubts about an indictment against the prime minister changed their view after interrogating Sharon.
Prosecutors were also investigating the deputy prime minister, Ehud Olmert, in connection with the same affair but are expected to recommend the case be closed because of insufficient evidence.
Sharon is also facing separate investigations into the alleged laundering of millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions.
The decision whether to prosecute Sharon lies with the attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, who is required to consider the recommendation of the prosecutor and that of the head of the police investigation, Moshe Mizrahi, who is more sceptical than Arbel that there is sufficient evidence to secure a conviction.
Mazuz is said by the Israeli press to be of the view that because the indictment would probably force the prime minister’s resignation, the state cannot afford to prosecute unless it is certain of its case. But Mazuz would be under considerable pressure to explain a decision to reject the prosecutor’s recommendation.
If Mazuz does decide to charge the prime minister, Sharon will be entitled to a hearing before the attorney general before his immunity as a member of the Israeli parliament is removed.
Legal analysts are divided on whether the law obliges the prime minister to resign if he is indicted. But he would come under political pressure to go at a time when he is particularly vulnerable because of unhappiness among far right members of his government and within his party, Likud, at the proposal to pull Jewish settlers out of the Gaza strip.
If Sharon were forced from office, he would probably be replaced by Netanyahu, who has resisted the Gaza pullout. – Guardian Unlimited Â