Top court: Rethink Olmert case

State Attorney’s Office rejects proposal, but adds that it will issue a final decision at a later date.

By BEN HARTMAN
Olmert, smug, with white on the sides 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski/The Jerusalem Post)
Olmert, smug, with white on the sides 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski/The Jerusalem Post)
The Supreme Court recommended on Monday that the State Attorney’s Office reexamine its decision to close an investigation against former prime minister Ehud Olmert in the Cremieux affair, pending a ruling on top Jerusalem city officials’ connections to the allegations.
The State Attorney’s Office rejected the proposal, but added that it would issue a final decision at a later date.
The affair deals with suspicions that Olmert, as minister of industry, trade and labor, paid a discounted price for an apartment on Jerusalem’s Cremieux Street to its developer, the Alumot MG Engineering Corporation, in exchange for his assistance in shortening bureaucratic processes for a real estate project Alumot was planning in the city. The affair first came to light following a state comptroller’s report in March 2006.
The police investigation that followed was closed about a year agoafter then-attorney-general Menahem Mazuz and top officials at theState Attorney’s Office followed police recommendations that there wasinsufficient evidence to prove that any criminal offenses had takenplace.
The justices’ recommendation on Monday to reopen the case came during ahearing that dealt with a petition issued by journalist Yoav Yitzhak,which was critical of Mazuz’s decision to close the case against Olmert.
State Attorney Uri Keidar said during the hearing that theinvestigations of senior municipal officials’ roles in the affair weredifferent from those involving Olmert. He added that Mazuz had ruledthat while the conduct of municipal officials warranted suspicion,there was no evidence to suggest wrongdoing on Olmert’s part.
Olmert attorney Ro’i Belcher said during Monday’s hearing that thediscussions over the Cremieux affair were pointless, and that Olmerthad received the same price as anyone who would have bought theapartment.