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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (flash90)
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| By Israel Insider staff September 24, 2007 |
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The Attorney General Menahem Mazuz's decision to launch a criminal investigation into the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's 2004 purchase of a Jerusalem apartment dominated local headlines today.
Olmert is suspected of having received an unreasonably low price on the house, allegedly as a result of his position in government, according to Haaretz, raising eyebrows at the possibility of fraud and bribery.
Following Mazuz's decision, State Control Committee head Zevulun Orlev urged Olmert to suspend himself immediately, the Jerusalem Post reported.
"In no civilized country does the prime minister serve while under a bundle of criminal investigations," Orlev said.
The Prime Minister's Bureau issued a statement in response, saying "We are certain and convinced that the Olmert family's purchase of the Cremieux Street home was clean and pure."
"We find the decision to continue the investigation unfortunate, because it is unnecessary," continued the statement.
"The purchase of the home, as was stated in the response given recently to the state comptroller, did not deviate from the market conditions and acceptable value estimates," said the statement. "The prime minister will fully cooperate with the investigation in order to bring it to an end as quickly as possible. We are certain that the investigation will clearly find that the purchase of the home was ethical and at a proper price."
The case is one of several involving allegations against Olmert, and was widely considered the least significant of the three affairs under study.
Another of the cases involves suspicions that Olmert gave special consideration to a company that his friend and former law partner represents for the allocation of grant money by the Industry, Trade, and Labor Ministry's Investment Center, Haaretz reported.
A third involves suspicions that he made political appointments at the Small Business Authority.
In a letter sent Sunday to MK Ophir Pines-Paz, Mazuz aide Ran Nizri wrote, "We will make every effort to speed up the handling of these cases, and we believe that the attorney general will soon make a decision on the various affairs."
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