Ministry seeks to outlaw bribery of foreign officials

Currently, only bribery of Israeli officials is a crime.

Sources inform ''Globes'' that the Ministry of Justice wants to outlaw the bribing of foreign officials, in the same way that bribery of Israeli officials is a crime. A memo of the bill states that the punishment for bribing a foreign official during the conduct of business will be the same as the current applicable punishment for bribing a public official in Israel - 42 months in jail.

The Criminal Code currently does not mention the bribery of foreign public officials. Section 291 of the Criminal Code covers the bribery of public officials, while another section of the Criminal Code defines public official as an employee of a corporation that provides a public service. This definition does not cover a foreign public official.

The explanation to the memo to the bill states that outlawing the bribery of a foreign official during the conduct of international business is required by the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.

Sources close to the issue said that Israel's defense industries that operate internationally and which are often forced to pay bribes to secure contracts and projects will intensively lobby against the proposed legislation.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 26, 2008

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2008

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