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Minister Tzahi Hanegbi (Kadima) in happier days.
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| By Associated Press February 3, 2006 |
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Israel's Attorney General on Thursday decided to charge Minister Tzachi Hanegbi on four criminal counts of fraud, bribery and perjury, the Justice Ministry office said.
The charges relate to Hanegbi's term as environment minister between 2001-2003, when he allegedly improperly appointed political allies to important jobs.
Charges will not be formally filed until Hanegbi has a chance for a hearing before the attorney general, standard practice in cases involving senior officials.
Hanegbi was a top official in the hard-line Likud, but bolted in December to follow Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to the Kadima Party he founded.
This week Hanegbi was posted in the number nine slot of its slate for parliament. Hanegbi had been considered a leading candidate for a high-ranking position in the next government.
However, the criminal charges could put that in doubt. He was forced to resign as public security minister when the attorney general opened the current investigation in 2004.
Hanegbi has said his employment practices at the Environment Ministry were in keeping with the norms of Israeli public service through the decades.
In 2000 as justice minister, he was investigated for alleged fraud, bribery and breach of trust in the management of a road safety organization he ran. He was not charged.
Hanegbi began his political career as a student political activist, where in 1980, he received a six-month suspended sentence for leading a chain-wielding attack on Arab students at Jerusalem's Hebrew University.
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