Sources in Attorney General Menachem Mazuz's office said Tuesday that the case against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
in the Rishon Tours double-billing
affair will be handled "just like any other."
The double-billing case centers on suspicions that while Olmert was Industry, Trade and Labor minister, he double-billed trips abroad to Jewish institutions, pocketing the difference or financing trips for relatives.
Earlier, Mazuz rejected Olmert's legal team's request to hold the PM's judicial hearing in the double-billing scandal in May 2009.
Mazuz's aide, Attorney Ran Nizri, informed Olmert's lawyers that the State Prosecutor's Office found the request unacceptable, since they were duly informed of
the attorney general's intention to hold the hearing in late November; and were told that in accordance with Attorney General Office protocol, the hearing would be set within three months – i.e. February, at the latest.
Nizri added that being familiar with the case file,
he was confident that three months is a sufficient period of time for the prime minister and his legal team to prepare for the hearing.
Sources in the State Prosecutor's Office stressed that since five months have passed since the initial investigation and Mazuz's decision, Olmert's lawyers' request to push the hearing another seven months was unreasonable.
The attorney general is also expected to make his final decision on whether or not to file charges against Olmert in the Talansky Affair.
Should an indictment be filed in the case, it is likely that the judicial hearing on both cases would be held at the same time.
The final date for the hearing is expected to be scheduled within the next few days.
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