Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
Photo: AFP
Court to Mazuz: Why did you close PM's 'pen case'?
Last month attorney general decided to close investigation file against Olmert; now court demands explanations
The High Court of Justice on Thursday ordered Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to reply within 30 days as to why the prime minister’s ‘pen case’ was closed and the investigation shut down.
Mazuz decided to close the case in September following police reports that there was not enough evidence to prosecute Olmert.
The police investigation began under instructions by Mazuz in light of a suspicion that arose of Olmert’s receiving hundreds of luxury pens from people he had come in contact with through his various positions as finance minister, industry, trade and labor minister, and chairman of the Israel Land Administration.
Through those positions, Olmert was able to aid the people who allegedly gave him the expensive pens – sometimes worth thousands of dollars – that were considered the prime minister’s hobby for years.
In a letter he published explaining his ruling, Mazuz pointed out that in some of the cases the complaint referred to, Olmert did not receive any pens, and in one case, he was given a pen by the owners of an Italian pen company as Jerusalem’s mayor.
In that context, Mazuz also wrote that a public figure was permitted to receive gifts from friends and that “not every gift raises suspicion of getting unfit favors, especially when it is a gift given to the prime minister on his birthday”.
