By Xinhua,
Jerusalem : Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will be questioned by the police on Friday morning for the third time since the bribery offenses he is suspected of were made public, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported Tuesday on its website.
Investigators of the police’s National Fraud Investigation Unit will arrive at the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem and present him with questions regarding the suspicions against him, said the report.
Olmert is suspected of illicitly receiving funds before beginning his tenure as prime minister. According to the suspicions, he received envelopes containing cash, believed to amount to hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars, for a long period of time.
A police team recently traveled to the United States to collect documents in New York, Washington and Las Vegas as part of a judicial inquiry related to the case. The two officers, Superintendents Tzachi Havkin and Lior Rice, have yet to return to Israel.
The key witness in the case, American-Jewish businessman Morris Talansky, is expected to return to Israel soon in order to undergo a cross examination next Thursday by Olmert’s lawyers, following his pre-trial deposition at the Jerusalem District Court in May.
On May 27, Talansky told the court that he gave Olmert 150,000 dollars out of his own pocket, speculating that some of the money went to fund Olmert’s fondness for fine hotels, first-class flights and luxury goods.
Olmert, however, recently estimated in talks with his Kadima activists that “this deposition will collapse in the cross examination.”
On May 23, Olmert was grilled again by police in the investigation against him. The about one-hour questioning session, the second since the bribery scandal went public earlier in May, was conducted in Olmert’s official residence in Jerusalem, on which the prime minister and the police have not made public comments.
Olmert, who has acknowledged receiving money from Talansky but claimed the funds were used for election campaigns, denies any wrongdoing in the case and said he would resign if indicted.
The investigation is the fifth into Olmert’s conduct since he became prime minister two years ago. No charges have been filed and one of the cases has been closed.