The Israel Police National Fraud Unit today questioned Long Island businessman Morris Talansky, the central witness in the bribery investigation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, at its Bat Yam headquarters.
"An indictment against Olmert is inevitable in this affair," predicts Police Major General (ret.) Yaakov Borovsky, a former advisor to the State Comptroller and former head of its anti-corruption unit. The current affair first came to light at the Office of the State Comptroller as part of its investigation into the purchase of Olmert's apartment in Jerusalem's Cremieux Street.
Borovsky today convened a press conference to officially announce his candidacy for Haifa mayor. However, almost all the questions were about the latest Olmert scandal. Borovsky said that the State Prosecutor's Office would seek to obtain preliminary testimony from Talansky, which would expedite the filing of an indictment against Olmert.
Olmert's defense team is working feverishly on an appeal to the Supreme Court against the decision by the Jerusalem District Court to collect preliminary testimony from Talansky. The appeal will apparently be filed on Wednesday.
Sources inform ''Globes'' that the appeal is 60 pages long in dense legal language, and that it will not criticize either the police or the State Prosecutor. The appeal will be defined as both an appeal and as a petition to the High Court of Justice.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 12, 2008
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