Police are considering summoning Ehud Olmert's family members for questioning regarding allegations
that the prime minister financed private trips abroad for his family by receiving duplicate travel expenses from different public bodies.
| Fresh Investigation |
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| Olmert says 'personally hurt' by new suspicions / Roni Sofer |
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Moments before leaving for Paris, prime minister slams fresh police investigation against him. 'The attempts to link my family to this affair are despicable,' he says |
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Olmert's children, Michal, Ariel, Shaul and Dana responded to the fresh accusations by saying in a joint statement "we want to make it unequivocally clear that we were specifically told that the plane tickets given to us were a gift from our father and were privately financed by him."
Olmert's communication's director, Amir Dan said Sunday that "police were very busy this weekend, briefing reporters and leaking selective material from the interrogation session with the prime minister; as if there is no law, no order, and as if all is fair in the matter."
According to Dan, the timing of the leaks is far from coincidental: "The police apparently realized that Morris Talanksy's testimony
was falling apart, so they are trying to divert the public's attention to a different matter," he said.
On Friday Israel Police and the Justice Ministry said in a joint statement issued after investigators questioned Olmert for the third time "according to the suspicions, during his tenure as Jerusalem mayor and trade and industry minister, Olmert would seek duplicate funding for his trips abroad from public bodies, including from the state, with each of them requested to fund the same trip."
Police claim that his office's travel agency would then send separate receipts to the unsuspecting organizations. In this way, according to the allegations, the agency would fraudulently obtain an excess amount of money for each one of Olmert's trips.
The travel coordinator at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor during Olmert’s term as minister, attacked Saturday the police’s conduct in what is termed the "Olmertours" affair.
“I regret that in my own country what you say in an investigation room is published in the newspapers the following day and no one thinks it abnormal,” wrote Rachel Risby-Raz, who is considered a key witness in the affair.
"The prime minister is neither a thief nor a swindler. He never pocketed a shekel or used public funds for his family’s needs. I am very upset by the lies being published by the media daily," she said.
Sources in the law enforcement system told Ynet that the new travel affair is viewed as a surprising ramification of the Talansky affair. The same sources estimated that the investigation file would be handed over to the State Prosecutor's Office by the police within several weeks, with a recommendation to indict the prime minister in both affairs.
Efrat Weiss, news agencies contributed to the report
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