Jerusalem, Jan 21: An Israeli court today indicted a businessman on charges of giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribe to premier Ariel Sharon to promote a real estate project in Greece in late 1990s when he was the Foreign Minister of the country.
Sharon and his deputy trade and Industry Minister Ehud Olmert are named as "active" recipients in the bribery indictment against a Likud party kingmaker filed in the Tel Aviv district court.
According to the chargesheet, Israeli businessman David Appel helped Sharon in the race for the Likud leadership in the 1990s, implying a link between the Prime Minister and his Deputy Olmert who was then Mayor of Jerusalem, to promote Appel's so-called Greek island resort plans.
"During (1998-99), Appel gave Ariel Sharon a bribe in recognition of activities connected to the fulfillment of his public positions," the indictment said. The indictment implies that Sharon, then Foreign Minister, had tried to help win Greek government approval for Appel's plan and that later Appel had allegedly increased the bribe by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to Sharon’s son Gilad on contracts for fictitious work apparently, as a market adviser on the Greek island project.
The charges further allege that appeal continued paying Gilad even when it became apparent that the project was stalled.
Bureau Report
