Tel-Chai Nation

The police in Israel have recommended indicting Ariel Sharon's sons Omri and Gilad on more charges:

The police have recommended that Ariel Sharon's sons, Gilad and ex-MK Omri, be indicted. One analyst says that if their father was healthy, he too would have been on the list.

Well we can only hope he would. He deserves to be tried for his crimes, but for more than 4 years now, his mind has perished, and his body has been kept on life support. Did it ever occur they're actually doing him a disservice by leaving his body as it is for so long?

Omri Sharon, a one-term Knesset Member who was instrumental in having the Knesset pass the various Disengagement laws, has already been in jail, serving most of a nine-month term for perjury and campaign funding violations.

The current charges have to do with Austrian tycoon and Sharon-family friend Martin Schlaff, whose indictment has also been recommended - though he is not expected to visit Israel anytime soon. Schlaff is suspected of giving the Sharons a $3 million bribe, including to Ariel Sharon himself.

[...]

Journalist Aryeh Avneri, chairman of the anti-corruption Ometz Movement, expressed his satisfaction to Arutz-7 that "the corruption of the Sharon family is finally coming to light."

The story originally broke in 2002, when it was learned that Sharon the father received a $1.5 million loan from South African businessman Cyril Kern – which was later found to have actually come from Schlaff. The additional $3 million was also from Schlaff, the police believe.

Casino at Center of Probe
Schlaff's interests in Israel were focused on the now-defunct casino in Jericho and a plan to open offshore casinos on boats docked in Eilat. The Jericho casino, built in 1998, brought in million of dollars in profits – mostly from the Israelis who made up 99% of the clientele – but was closed due to lack of customers when the Oslo War broke out in October 2000.

"We know that after the Jericho casino was closed," Avneri said, "Omri Sharon tried to convince various bodies to give approvals for a casino boat... There were many problems with the investigation because the Austrian government did not cooperate, but in the end we now see that the police have recommended an indictment."

What they did was a most astounding display of political crimes, and Omri Sharon didn't get a strong enough sentence. It's time to bring him to trial again for what he did, and ensure that he won't be leaving prison so soon.

Labels: Europe, Israel, political corruption