The Holyland affair is becoming yet more tangled. This evening, the Rishon LeZion Magistrates Court extended the remand of Uri Lupolianski, former mayor of Jerusalem, by five days. Lupolianski was arrested today on the suspicion that he received bribes amounting to NIS 3 million, plus $30,000, to promote the grandiose Holyland real estate project in Jerusalem.
In remanding Lupolianski, the judge said that the scale of the alleged corruption raised the fear of attempts at obstructing justice.
The suspicions against Lupolianski relate to his term as mayor of Jerusalem, from 2003, and also to the period when he was deputy mayor, when he also served as chairman of the local Planning and Building Committee and was in charge of the municipality's engineering division, between 1993 and 2003. Throughout the period, Lupolianski was also chairman of Yad Sarah, the non-profit organization that lends medical equipment.
Lupolianski is suspected of having demanded and received bribes from the Holyland developers during these periods. He is alleged to have received NIS 1.5 million up to 1999, and a further NIS 1.4 million in the period 2000-2006. The money was given as donations to Yad Sarah.
In addition, Lupolianski is alleged to have received $30,000 for his own use, to pay political activists during the mayoral elections of 2003. It is further alleged that, in 2005, he received NIS 100,000 in the form of a donation to a rabbinical college run by his son.
In return for these bribes, Lupolianski is alleged to have acted diligently to facilitate the Holyland project according to the demands of the developers. Among other things, he is alleged to have expedited an urban planning decision in the local Planning and Building Committee, and acted to bring about the rejection of nearly 1,000 objections to the project and to prevent a reduction in the height of the buildings by two floors, and to reduce betterment levies payable. These acts, it is alleged, saved the developers millions of shekels and led to a considerable expansion of the project.
Under questioning, Lupolianski denied all the allegations, and claimed that the monies transferred to Yad Sarah were donations, and that the Cherney family, which was involved in the Holyland project, was a longstanding supporter of the organization.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 14, 2010
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2010.