PM Olmert faces indictment in double-billing air tickets case

Attorney general Menahem Mazuz notified prime minister Ehud Olmert Wednesday, Nov. 25, that pending a hearing, he is planning to file criminal charges against him in the double billing flight tickets affair following a special hearing. The charges include fraud, breach of trust, falsifying corporate records, failure to report income and receiving illegal benefits during his years as a public servant. The prime minister’s long-serving aide Ms Shula Zaken faces similar charges.
Olmert, who resigned in the course of the corruption investigations against him, is transitional prime minister until the Feb. 10 general election. He will be under heavy pressure from his Kadima party to step aside immediately so that his successor as party leader, foreign minister Tzipi Livni, can move into the prime minster’s office until polling day.
Earlier Wednesday, Raanan Dinur, the director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, was questioned under advisement by the National Fraud Unit. Dinur is suspected of fraud and breach of trust while serving as director-general of the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry, between 2003 and 2006. Olmert is the primary suspect in this case too.