Sharon avoids indictment in bribery scandal

1.00pm

JERUSALEM - Israel's attorney-general dropped a bribery case against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday, a move which could boost his plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip.

Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz told a news conference he had found no evidence for a reasonable chance of conviction, despite the chief prosecutor's recommendation Sharon be charged.

The decision was likely to help Sharon overcome resistance within his right-wing camp to his blueprint for "disengagement" from the Palestinians and forge a "unity" coalition with Shimon Peres' opposition Labour Party if needed to carry it out.

"As a friend, I was pained by the opening of the case (against Sharon) and I am happy he got out of it," Peres, who has known the former general for decades, told reporters.

An indictment could have toppled Sharon, 76, and sunk the Likud party leader's landmark plan to remove all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank.

Prosecutors had looked into the payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars to Sharon's son Gilad by Israeli land developer David Appel, who hired him in the late 1990s to help plan an Aegean island resort, which was never built.

They investigated whether Sharon, foreign minister when his son was given what Mazuz described as a senior administrative role in the project, used his position to help Appel -- a Likud activist -- promote the enterprise.

"For over two years, police listened to Appel's two phone lines, recording thousands of conversations. These wiretaps yielded no evidence, direct or indirect, for substantiating the suspicion that Sharon was bribed by Appel," Mazuz said.

"This absence of proof is... a deafening silence," he said in a statement devoid of any criticism of Sharon.

Mazuz also closed the case against Gilad Sharon, noting payments for his services had not begun until late 1999, when his father was no longer foreign minister and in the opposition.

The attorney-general said he treated Sharon no differently from any other suspect. Sharon had denied misconduct.

Mazuz's word lifted a cloud of uncertainty enveloping Sharon's political future, at least for now.

Leftist opposition figures vowed to challenge the ruling in the High Court. Sharon could also face charges in two other corruption probes in which he denies wrongdoing, but political analysts said they could take up to two years to complete.

Sharon's immediate challenge will be to survive politically following right-wing defections that erased his parliamentary majority after the cabinet approved the Gaza pullout plan in principle on June 6.

Under a cabinet compromise, no settlement evacuations can begin until a further ministerial vote is taken in nine months, and Sharon vowed to hold onto parts of the occupied West Bank permanently.

Palestinians welcome "disengagement" but say the West Bank element will deprive them of land they want for a viable state.

Sharon is expected to try to regain his governing majority with centre-left Labour on board. Labour wants out of Gaza but said coalition talks had to await Mazuz's ruling on Sharon.

Asked about a political partnership now, Peres told reporters: "We have not received an invitation nor have we sent a request to be invited into the government."

But he added: "At this moment... toppling the government would also cause the collapse of the Gaza evacuation."

- REUTERS