Ariel Sharon's son must yield graft probe papers

Israeli Leader's Son Must Yield Graft Probe Papers
By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Supreme Court Monday ordered Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's son to hand over documents crucial to probing corruption scandals that could topple the Israeli leader and sideline his Gaza Strip withdrawal plan.

Israel's attorney general Sunday received the chief prosecutor's recommendation to put Sharon, 76, on trial for alleged taking of bribes from a businessman who was pursuing a Greek island development scheme that ultimately flopped.

Sharon has denied wrongdoing. But the legal storm enveloping him has hurt him in opinion polls and could hinder his plan to unilaterally withdraw Jewish settlers from Gaza and a few from the West Bank to break a peacemaking deadlock with Palestinians.

Micha Fettma, the lawyer for Sharon's son Gilad, said he would comply with the high court decision which followed months of lower court battles over the documents in the Greek case and another suspected of involving a South African businessman.

"The investigation is stuck in certain places. They (the police) need our help to make progress and we will give it to them," Fettma told reporters at the Supreme Court.

Prosecutors contended the son was in control of key papers but Fettma disputed this.

"We've been ordered to give documents we don't have and that means we have to make every effort to obtain them. (But) we will fulfil the instructions of the court," the lawyer said.

The timing of the affairs could not be worse for Sharon and his relationship with Israel's closest ally, Washington.

Sharon hopes to win President Bush's approval for his plan at a critical U.S. meeting on April 14. Sharon's intention to cement Israel's grip on major West Bank settlement blocs in the bargain has angered the Palestinians.

Some cabinet ministers said Sharon should quit if Attorney General Menachem Mazuz decided to indict him. Others said Sharon should suspend himself.

Under Israeli law Sharon would not have to resign until exhausting his final court appeal against any conviction. But recent opinion polls have shown he would be under huge public pressure to quit if charged.

INDICTMENT DECISION LIKELY WITHIN TWO MONTHS

In the other case, prosecutors believe Sharon's two sons used a $1.5 million loan from a South African businessman as collateral to repay alleged illicit contributions to a Sharon election campaign.

Foreign funding of political campaigns is illegal in Israel.

Mazuz will have the final say on whether to indict Sharon. Justice Ministry sources said Sunday it could take up to two months for him to rule in the Greek island affair.

Sharon and his aides have declined to comment on the developments in the corruption scandals since Sunday.

But one of his confidants told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper the central issue was "whether there is sufficient evidence which justifies throwing the country into a whirlpool."

The most high-profile affair centers on payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars that a land developer and Likud party kingmaker made to Gilad Sharon whom he hired in the 1990s as an adviser on a never-completed project to build a Greek resort.

Suspicions focus on whether Sharon, foreign minister at the time, tried to help win Greek government approval for the enterprise, promoted by Likud fundraiser David Appel, now on trial on related bribery charges.

Legal experts quoted by television networks over the weekend said the case against Sharon would have to be ironclad for Mazuz to indict. Channel Two television quoted Mazuz as saying the Greek island case was "borderline" and "problematic."
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(Additional reporting by Gwen Ackerman)