THE corruption investigation into Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is likely to produce charges of money laundering, fraud and breach of trust, Israeli police officials said Saturday, adding that questioning of the Yisrael Beiteinu leader was nearing an end.
Unless additional testimony is needed, the police will submit their recommendations on filing an indictment in the coming weeks, the sources told Israeli daily Haaretz.
They said the investigators were collecting more testimony from Lieberman with the intent to charge him with bribery as well.
Lieberman’s testimony, the final stage of the police probe, began last week; the Israeli foreign minister will soon undergo one more session before the case is transferred to the State Prosecutor’s Office.
Officials close to the investigation told Haaretz that as long as Lieberman has not finished giving testimony, a final charge sheet cannot be drawn up.
The foreign minister was questioned for five hours last Friday by a team from the National Fraud Investigation Unit at an undisclosed location.
Investigators presented him with documents outlining computerised financial transactions of firms suspected to be shell companies providing cover to move money to his bank accounts.
Lieberman was asked to describe the origins of the money and how much was transferred, as well as the motives for creating the companies and their activities.
Lieberman was first questioned on the matter in April 2007, but last week was the first time he was asked about thousands of documents obtained by investigators since then.
Yisrael Beiteinu party officials said this weekend the party would not leave the government even if Lieberman is forced to withdraw from the governing coalition during the investigation.
This comes despite Lieberman’s recent assertions that the party would quit the government should he be forced to relinquish the foreign ministry portfolio.
Meanwhile, the acting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has made a surprise visit to Iraq, his first visit since the US-led war in 2003.
During the visit he stated that Israel must accept the creation of a Palestinian state and halt the construction of settlements in the West Bank if peace negotiations are to be resumed.
Abbas said these conditions are necessary ‘so that we can resume dialogue in order to reach a political solution.’
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters that the main reason for Abbas’ visit was to address the issue of Palestinian refugees in Iraq, thousands of whom still live in Baghdad.
Others are stranded on the Iraq-Syria border.
They are discriminated against because of Saddam Hussein’s support for the Palestinian cause and the way that he made Palestinian refugees welcome in Iraq.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that his government would produce policies on ‘peace and security,’ including presumably the Palestinians, in the coming weeks.
‘Today, we will establish a diplomatic-security cabinet, and in the coming weeks we will complete the formulation of our policy to advance peace and security,’ he said at the opening of the first weekly meeting of his cabinet.
The charter of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party expressly prohibits Israel from giving up any land it has occupied.
His foreign minister is Lieberman, the leader of an extreme-right fringe party and a resident of an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinan figures in Iraq told the media that Abbas’ surprise visit was intended to enhance bilateral relations between Palestine and the pro-US Iraqi regime. Abbas will meet with Iraqi president Jalal Talibani who came back to Baghdad from the city of As-Sulaymaniya to meet Abbas.
The source pointed out that Abbas would also meet with deputies to the Iraqi president Adel Abd Al-Mahdi and Tariq Al-Hashimi as well as Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki.
Syrian foreign minister Walid Mu’allim and Turkish president Abdullah Gol have also visited Baghdad recently.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mousa has also held talks in Baghdad with President Talibani, Prime Minister Al-Maliki and Foreign Minister Hoshbar Zibari, as well as Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir Jasim, Interior Minister Jawad Al-Bulani and other Iraqi politicians.
Acting president Mahmud Abbas is himself coming under pressure to reinstate the Palestinian ambassador to Russia, Afif Safieh, whom he fired in March.
The Coalition of Jerusalem Organisations and the Coalition of Christian organizations in Palestine issued a joint call on Saturday urging the president to reinstate Safieh.
In a statement, the organisations said that Safieh had served the Palestinian interest, calling the decision to withdraw him ‘arbitrary.’
The statement hailed Safieh for his ‘hard work, cleverness, charisma, strong character and confidence in the cause of his country.’
A Christian and a long-serving diplomat for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Safieh has also served as ambassador to the United Sates, the Netherlands, and the Vatican.
Abbas is scheduled to visit Russia later this week for talks with its president, Dimitri Medvedev.
Meanwhile, the Israeli high court has upheld the eviction of Palestinians from their Jerusalem homes.
The Israeli Supreme Court rejected a petition by two Palestinian families challenging their eviction from their houses in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem on Sunday.
The Hanoun and Al-Ghawi families had appealed a decision by the Israeli Central Court which also denied their right to remain in their homes.
The families’ lawyer, Husni Abu Hussein, presented Ottoman-era documents proving the family’s ownership of the land.
The court rejected the Palestinians’ claims, siding with Israeli settlers who also claim the land.
A top Palestinian Authority official on Jerusalem Affairs, Hatem Abdul Qader, said that the ruling marked a ‘black day’ for the high court, proving that the court is controlled by the Israeli state.
He said the Palestinian authorities would approach international courts with the case.