Channels

Photo: AFP
Omri Sharon
Photo: AFP

Omri Sharon: I didn't offer to help set up casino

Sharon’s latest comments to media come soon after retired major-general and Tafnit Party head Uzi Dayan accused prime minister’s son of having turned to him asking he assist businessman Martin Schlaf set up a casino in Eilat

Former MK Omri Sharon said Monday “I made mistakes, I am not denying it, and no one is immune of mistakes. Some mistakes we do out of good faith, and others we do while knowing they are illegal all the way. I hope I’ll avoid similar mistakes in the future."

 

Sharon’s latest comments to the media come soon after retired major-general and Tafnit Party head Uzi Dayan accused the prime minister’s son of having turned to him asking he assist businessman Martin Schlaf set up a casino in Eilat.

 

Schlaf has been linked to an investigation into illegal funding for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s 1999 campaign for the Likud primaries.

 

“Never was and never happened; I never spoke of something like this,” Sharon responded to Dayan’s comments in a radio interview broadcast Monday.

 

“Everything is clung to me and it seems very nice to add more allegations, if this brings him more air time. Look, as you can see we are now speaking about him (Dayan) and this doesn’t happen often,” Sharon said.

 

About the casino allegations, Sharon told Army Radio: “I never came across this, and never dealt with this. I say again, this story has nothing to do with reality.” He acknowledged however that he personally knew Schlaf, the Austrian businessman at the center of the affair.

 

'I am in a different place'

 

Asked about a television documentary showing excerpts from his personal journal in which he admits to inappropriate political appointments, Sharon said: “I have no plans to answer. I have something to say, but this is not important at the moment for me. I wanted to reply to this specific issue (casino affair) because of the audacity and boldness of these lies.”

 

As for his position in the Kadima party, Sharon said: “No one abandoned me. I don’t feel isolated and I don’t feel abandoned. I am leaving behind something and starting a new path. I am in a different place.”

The prime minister’s son refused to comment on the condition of his comatose father who remains at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital.

 

Sharon will start serving a 9-month sentence for pleading guilty to illegal campaign funding. His lawyers are planning to appeal.

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.13.06, 11:22
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment