Olmert's adviser lashes out at police

After PM grilled on Rishon Tours scandal, aide says police trying "to throw sand" into the public's eyes.

By ABE SELIG, JPOST.COM STAFF
olmert worried 224.88 aj (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
olmert worried 224.88 aj
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert underwent a ninth round of questioning by investigators from the National Fraud Unit at his Jerusalem residence on Friday morning. The two-hour session focused on completing the inquiry into the Rishon Tours affair, in which police say Olmert double-billed charities and a government ministry for the same airplane expenses, and misused funds to pay for personal family travel. Police have already recommended indicting the prime minister in the case. Following the interrogation, Olmert's media adviser, Amir Dan, slammed investigators, saying that instead of admitting they had "toppled a prime minister" on the basis of "a partial picture alone," they were trying to cover up their failures by "inventing" the completion of the inquiry. It was "an attempt to throw sand into the eyes of the public," Dan said. In the previous Fraud Unit interrogation regarding the Rishon Tours case at Olmert's residence a month ago, the prime minister blasted investigators, telling them, "Just two weeks ago you recommended that I be indicted for a series of what you called 'severe offenses,' yet now you come back and open the case again?" Olmert is currently being investigated in six different cases of suspected fraud. Previous questioning sessions have mainly focused on the Rishon Tours case and the Talansky affair, in which the prime minister allegedly accepted illicit sums of cash from Long Island businessman Morris Talansky. Investigators had also been expected to focus Friday on Olmert's luxury apartment on Cremieux Street in Jerusalem's German Colony, which was purchased for below the market value while he served as mayor of Jerusalem. Olmert is suspected of receiving the low price as a bribe from the developer in exchange for cutting through municipal red tape. Also expected to arise was the so-called Investment Center scandal, which revolves around allegations that Olmert funneled approximately NIS 7.67 million to businesses run by an associate in the Likud central committee during his tenure as industry, trade and labor minister. Olmert has asserted his innocence in all of the cases.