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PM Sharon speaks during the weekly cabinet meeting at his Jerusalem office, Sunday Jan.1, 2006. (AP)
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| By Associated Press January 4, 2006 |
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Police have evidence that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's family received $3 million in bribes from an Austrian businessman, part of a complicated case involving illegal campaign contributions, Channel 10 TV reported Tuesday.
The report showed a document it said was delivered by police to a court that confiscated material from the home of the Shlaff family in Israel, saying it had evidence of the bribe. Police have been investigating the case, stemming from the 1999 election, for more than two years.
Lior Chorev, a key Sharon aide, refused to comment. "No official is saying this, a reporter is saying this," he said. "Since when do I need to respond to speculation of a reporter on Channel 10."
Officials at the Israeli Justice Ministry were not available for comment.
The report comes as Sharon is running for re-election at the head of a new party, Kadima. Sharon is far ahead in the polls, despite findings that large numbers of voters believe he and his family are corrupt.
Police have investigated two cases involving Sharon and his sons, Omri and Gilad, but the prime minister has not been charged. Omri Sharon resigned from Israel's parliament on Tuesday after conviction on charges tied to the same case covered in the Channel 10 report.
Omri Sharon pleaded guilty in November to falsifying corporate documents, perjury and violating party funding laws. Under a plea deal, prosecutors dropped charges of fraud and breach of trust but are demanding imprisonment on the other counts.
The TV report said the latest turn in the bribery case stems from an investigation into a shady $1.5 million loan the Sharon family took from South African businessman Cyril Kern to pay back illegal contributions to Sharon's 1999 primary election campaign. It said police have suspected for some time that Kern was not the source of the loan; rather, a conduit for money from Austrian magnate Martin Schlaff and his brother, James.
The report did not detail what evidence the police were said to have.
The document police gave the court was in response to a request by James Schlaff to return computers confiscated from his house, Channel 10 said. In the meantime, Schlaff canceled the request.
In the raid, police took hand-held computers, documents and other materials, the report said.
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