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AG To Indict Omri Sharon On Corruption Charges
2005-07-26
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/ spages/605039.html
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz announced Tuesday evening that he intends to issue an indictment against MK Omri Sharon for allegedly violating campaign finance laws, forging corporate documents, breach of trust, and lying under oath.
Sharon is alleged to have committed the crimes during his father's bid for chairmanship of the Likud as well as the prime ministership (the so-called "straw companies" affair).
Sharon faces a maximum prison sentence of five years if convicted of the charges.
Mazuz informed Knesset speaker MK Reuven Rivlin, Knesset House Committee chairman MK Roni Bar-On, and MK Sharon himself of the decision.
Along with his letter to Rivlin, Mazuz attached a letter requesting that Sharon be stripped of parliamentary immunity. Sharon himself signed a statement expressing his willingness to voluntarily give up his immunity.
"In light of the attorney general's decision, I hereby announce that I have decided to request, on my own volition, to forego my parliamentary immunity as I have declared I would do in the past," Sharon wrote in the letter.
"I will present my full case in court," Sharon wrote.
The attorney general's announcement comes one day after the Knesset passed a law granting him the authority to directly issue an indictment against an MK to the courts without having to request stripping of parliamentary immunity.
An MK, however, is entitled to ask the house to hold a hearing on the matter.
A Justice Ministry spokesperson said that unless Sharon requests such a hearing, an indictment against Sharon will be submitted to Tel Aviv District Court within the time frame stipulated by law.
Yaakov Galanti, a spokesperson for the state attorney's office, denied that negotiations on a plea bargain brought about the indictment. In talks with Sharon, prosecutors had refused to reduce key charges which appear against him in the indictment.
Source: IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis
