Analysis: Indictment is still at the beginning of a long road

We're still a relatively long way off from even the possibility of Olmert being indicted.

By DAN IZENBERG
Olmert 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
Olmert 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
The die has been cast. In the wake of the police announcement on Sunday evening, we know that the indictment potentially facing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert involves two of the six investigations that he has been undergoing over the past months. The material regarding the Talansky and Rishon Tours affairs will now be handed over to the Jerusalem District Attorney's Office, where the district attorney for criminal affairs, Eli Abarbanel, will head the investigation. Abarbanel will submit his recommendation on whether to indict Olmert and pass it on to State Attorney Moshe Lador, who will then present his opinion to Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz for a final decision. In practice, the process will not be so strictly regimented. Abarbanel, Lador and Mazuz are well informed about the police investigation and are very familiar with the main findings made by the police. The material will not be new to them. How long will the process take until Mazuz makes his decision? One informed source said he would be surprised if an announcement came any time before the end of the High Holy Days on October 21. But even if and when Mazuz announces that he intends to indict Olmert, he will emphasize that the decision is an interim one, conditional on the outcome of a hearing that he will grant the prime minister's lawyers. To prepare for the hearing, the lawyers will be given time to study the material gathered by the police. Unlike most for hearings, however, the lawyers have already read much of the material, at least regarding the Talansky affair, because of the pre-trial examination of Morris Talansky by the state and by Olmert's attorneys. It is possible, therefore, that the amount of time granted to the lawyers will be less than usual. Nonetheless, it will certainly take a month or two, perhaps even longer. Thus, we are still a relatively long way off from even the possibility of an indictment. Regard the beginning of 2009 as an early scenario for Mazuz's dramatic decision.