Omri Sharon under the magnifying glass
Photo: Yariv Katz
Election fraud hearing for Omri Sharon
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz held for Knesset Member Omri Sharon, son of the prime minister, a hearing Wednesday, but Sharon sent his lawyer
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz
held a hearing Wednesday afternoon for Knesset Member Omri Sharon following his indictment for involvement in the dummy political organizations scandal.
Lawyers Sheinman and Navit Negev, representing Sharon, said in a statement, "We have a position on this issue and things to say. But, like we've said in the past, we respect the attorney general, and therefore, we say things to him and not in public. We'll wait patiently for his decision."
However, a ruling is not expected on the same day.
Omri Sharon never attended the hearing, but he had sent his lawyer Dan Sheinman to represent him in the debate.
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The indictment upon which Mazuz will decide includes accepting illegal campaign money, receiving money exceeding legal amounts, and mismanagement of accounting books. Sharon is also accused of filing false documents, breach of trust, fraud, conspiracy to commit a crime, and lying under oath.
Lying under oath has a maximum penalty of seven years.
Knesset Member Sharon is suspected of illegal fundraising for his father's campaign for Likud Party chairman in 1999. He is suspected of violating both the Party Financing and Political Parties Laws.
The investigation began in 2001 after the police came to believe that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his son Omri illegally raised millions of shekels for the Likud chairmanship run and the campaign for prime minister.
State Comptroller Eliezer Goldberg investigated the scandal, and he raised the issue that, in the primaries, illegal financial activities occurred and dummy companies were set up to raise funds.
The articles dealing with the "dummy companies" scandal are separate from those connected to different but similar scandals – namely the Cyril Keren scandal.
In this scandal, a South-African businessman was accused of transferring USD 1.5 million to the account of Gilad Sharon, to hide an illegal contribution to Ariel Sharon for the 2002 Likud primaries.
