Subject to a hearing, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman will stand trial, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein told Liberman's lawyers this evening.
Liberman will be indicted for fraud, breach of trust, fraudulent receiving in aggravated circumstances, money laundering, and intimidating a witness. He will not however be accused of bribery.
The notice sent to Liberman's counsel states that the decision is not final, and that they can present arguments at a hearing before the attorney general after they have studied the investigation material.
In response to the announcement of the intention to indict him, Liberman said this evening at a Yisrael Beitenu party meeting that had been arranged previously, "I have always acted within the law. After fifteen years, at last the opportunity will be given to me to prove that I acted lawfully. I have no cause for concern, and you know that I keep my word."
The Attorney General has also decided to indict Liberman's daughter, Michal-Liberman-Gilon, and his former attorney, Adv. Yoav Meni.
The investigation of Liberman began five years ago. The investigating lawyers explained the length of the investigation by the need to carry out enquiries overseas, and by Liberman's campaign to prevent the police from perusing documents seized from Meni, on the grounds that lawyer-client privilege applied to them.
According to the Ministry of Justice announcement, the relevant period for the allegations is from the date Liberman was first appointed a minister, in March 2001, to 2008. After Liberman left the post of director general of the Prime Minister's Office in 1997, he took up business activity in Israel and overseas, through two companies that he set up, in Israel and in Cyprus.
The allegation is that Liberman maintained ties with business people in Israel and overseas, as a result of which huge sums of money were received by these companies, and later by other companies that he set up, "that did not represent consideration for their activities."
The announcement states that, after being appointed a minister, Liberman drew up a plan with Meni for the continuation of the financial activity, illegally. The two are alleged to have acted deliberately to conceal the activity, acting fraudulently towards the public and the institutions of the state.
An investigation of Liberman on suspicions of infringement of party financing rules, in relation to the elections of 1999, was opened in 2000. The Ministry of Justice said that since the later investigation was partly connected to the first, it was decided to combine them.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 13, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011