Businessman Avigdor Kelner, who owns a stake in the Holyland real estate project in Jerusalem, has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the bribery affair connected with the project. Kelner was brought before the Rishon LeZion Magistrates Court this evening and remanded in custody for six days.
The suspicion is that Kelner transferred bribery payments amounting to hundreds of thousands of shekels to senior people in the Israel Lands Authority and the Jerusalem Municipality in order to move the project forward.
Kelner was formerly chairman of Polar Investments (TASE: PLR) before control of the company was transferred to Ziel Feldman. He was involved in a bribery affair in which, last February, Oded Tal, formerly acting manager of the Israel Lands Authority central region, was convicted. Tal was sentenced to 45 months in prison and an eighteen month suspended sentence after he was convicted on three counts, one of which was receiving a bribe from Kelner, who was serving as CEO of Polar Investments at the time.
Polar Investments then held 50% of Hazera, which had leasing rights from the Israel Lands Authority on 1,000 dunam (250 acres) in the Mesubim Junction area, where the Hiriya waste disposal site is situated. A park is planned on the site, to be named after former prime minister Ariel Sharon. Kelner saw to it that the company employed Tal's wife, in return for which Tal reported to Kelner inside information about decisions of the Authority concerning Hazera's Mesubim project and advised him in various ways.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 8, 2010
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