MKs demand Olmert's immediate suspension
'No normal country allows its PM to stay in office while under an array of criminal investigations, MK Orlev says in response to attorney general's decision to order another criminal investigation against Olmert
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz's decision to order another criminal investigation against Ehud Olmert shook the political establishment on Monday, with several Knesset members calling for the prime minister's immediate suspension.
Olmert is suspected of purchasing a Jerusalem flat from a friend for a price $320,000 cheaper than the property's market value in return for helping the construction firm that refurbished the apartment block gain illegal building permits.
National Religious Party chairman, MK Zevulun Orlev, who is also chairman of the Knesset's State Control Committee, said "no normal country allows its prime minister to stay in office while under an array of criminal investigations… Olmert must suspend himself immediately."
'We regret Mauzuz's decision'
Meretz-Yahad Chairman MK Yossi Beilin said the decision "seriously clouds Olmert's ability to lead Israel through this critical time".
"This decision, along with the numerous other financial suspicions against the prime minister, is enough to question his competence," he said, adding that the PM would have to resign should the investigation result in an indictment.
MK Arieh Eldad, also of the National Religious Party, called on police to speed up the investigation against Olmert "and not to let the prime minister evade trial with his well-known rejection maneuvers".
The Prime Minister's Office said in response to Mazuz's decision that it was "confident in the steps taken by the Olmert family prior to purchasing the apartment on Jerusalem's Cremieux Street… We regret the decision to open what we are sure will prove to be an unnecessary police investigation."
According to Eldad, "The police must utilize the investigation to the fullest as soon as possible so that Ehud Olmert, the State of Israel's most corrupt prime minister ever, finds the place where he belongs in court."
