Mazuz: No criminal probe into PM nuclear slip-up

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz rejected on Sunday a request by MK Arye Eldad (NU/NRP) to open a criminal investigation against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over a statement he made on German television implying that Israel had nuclear weapons. "These are things that need to be cleared up in the public sphere, not the judicial one," Mazuz ruled. According to Israel Radio, Eldad said in response that Mazuz's decision essentially meant that Mordechai Vanunu - the Israeli nuclear technician who served 18 years in prison for releasing documents that implied Israel was nuclear-capable - received one ruling, while the prime minister received another. Olmert, in an interview on Germany's SAT 1 network earlier this month, came under fire for endangering Israeli security when he said Iran was a danger compared to other countries with nuclear weapons, such as America, France, Israel and Russia.