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More charges against Israeli PM
01/03/2007 16:17 - (SA)
Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was faced fresh allegations of corruption on Thursday, accused of fixing jobs for scores of cronies from the right-wing Likud party while a cabinet minister.
The allegations were sparked when private Channel 10 television revealed a document drawn up by Olmert aides listing dozens of appointments they arranged for party members when he was trade and industry minister from 2003 to 2006.
"Every week or two, I would be summoned to the minister's office... during these meetings I got a list of people who they wanted appointed to the postal service," Avi Moskovitch, a former senior postal official, told army radio.
During meetings with Olmert's senior aide, Oved Yehezkel, "we would receive instructions from the minister's office and they expected us to carry them out," he claimed.
Yehezkel has been one of Olmert's closest aides and today acts as a senior political advisor to the premier.
Olmert quit the Likud party in November 2005 for the centrist Kadima party, created by former mentor and coma-stricken Ariel Sharon.
'Guilty of wrongdoing'
Political appointments were common practice under successive Likud-led governments and several party members, including former MPs, have been found guilty of wrongdoing over the years in their bid to win party support.
But Olmert's office has slammed the latest allegations as a "ridiculous" thirst for revenge.
"These are a series of ridiculous claims that are motivated by an urge for revenge," it said in response to the Channel 10 report broadcast on Wednesday night.
But the accusations are the latest in a series of scandals to embroil Olmert and other national leaders.
Last January, Israel's state prosecutor ordered a criminal probe over his alleged abuse of influence in the privatisation of the country's second-largest bank.
In the most series charges ever leveled against an Israeli leader, President Moshe Katsav faces indictment for rape and sexual harassment.
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