Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said yesterday that he is considering
indicting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over a double-billing affair, local media
reported.
The attorney general also told Olmert's lawyer that the prime minister was
welcome to call for a hearing before a final decision on the matter, according
to the website of local daily Ha'aretz.
In the double-billing affair, which is also known as the RishonTours affair,
named after the travel agency, Olmert was alleged for paying for both of his own
and his family's private flights by money obtained fraudulently from public
bodies when serving as Jerusalem mayor and then as industry, trade and labor
minister from 2003 to 2006.
Olmert might face the charges of fraud, breach of trust, falsifying corporate
records, failure to report an income and receiving illegal benefits, to which an
aggravated circumstances clause applies.
The final decision on whether or not to file criminal charges against the
prime minister is subject to an Attorney General's Office judicial hearing. The
hearing will allow Olmert's attorneys to present Mazuz with exculpatory
evidence.