Israeli police recommend indictment of Ariel Sharon

JERUSALEM, April 29 (JTA) — Israeli police have recommended that Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon and a business associate be charged with alleged bribery, fraud, breach of trust and obstruction of justice, Israeli media reported this week. Sharon, who denied the allegations against him, called on the state attorney to decide before the May 17 elections whether to indict him. Sharon’s lawyer, Ya’acov Weinrot, said that from his discussions with the state attorney, Edna Arbel, it did not appear that the recommendation for charges to be filed was unequivocal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who submitted testimony to police as part of the inquiry, said he had full confidence in Sharon and in his innocence, Israel Television reported. The police probe was launched last summer at the request of the Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz. The paper claimed that Sharon had bribed a witness in an unsuccessful libel suit the minister had brought against Ha’aretz over an article it published regarding Sharon’s role in the 1982 Lebanon War. Sharon had included the business associate, Avigdor Ben Gal, in a delegation he led as minister of infrastructure to Russia in June 1997. According to the allegations, Sharon promised to include Ben Gal in a lucrative natural gas deal under consideration in exchange for his altering his testimony. Ben Gal was called as a witness because he is a retired general who was a senior commander during the war. Two weeks after returning from Russia, Ben Gal testified in court. His testimony contradicted remarks, which he had made in a university lecture a decade earlier, that Sharon — as defense minister in 1982 — had concealed from then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin plans he had for a far-reaching military operation into Lebanon. Ben Gal also did not disclose that his last contact with Sharon had been during the business trip to Russia. Israel Radio, citing sources close to the police investigation, reported that the probe had uncovered evidence substantiating some of the allegations. Arbel said Thursday that it was possible no decision would be made until after the May 17 elections.