Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said Wednesday that he is considering indicting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over a double-billing affair, local media reported.
The attorney general also told Olmert's lawyer that the prime minister was welcome to call for a hearing before a final decision on the matter, according to the website of local daily Ha'aretz.
In the double-billing affair, which is also known as the Rishon Tours affair, named after the travel agency, Olmert was alleged for paying for both of his own and his family's private flights by money obtained fraudulently from public bodies when serving as Jerusalem mayor and then as industry, trade and labor minister from 2003 to 2006.
Olmert might face the charges of fraud, breach of trust, falsifying corporate records, failure to report an income and receiving illegal benefits, to which an aggravated circumstances clause applies.
The final decision on whether or not to file criminal charges against the prime minister is subject to an Attorney General's Office judicial hearing. The hearing will allow Olmert's attorneys to present Mazuz with exculpatory evidence.
(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2008)
