Sharon defies calls to resign

By JUSTIN HUGGLER in Jerusalem

Ariel Sharon defied calls for him to resign as Israeli Prime Minister yesterday and vowed to stay in office until his term ends in 2007, even as Israel's acting attorney-general said she believed there was enough evidence to indict him on charges of taking bribes.

Yesterday's opinion polls made alarming reading for Mr Sharon. According to a poll in Ma'ariv, 53 per cent of Israelis now believe Mr Sharon was involved in misconduct, and 63 per cent say he should reign if the allegations against him are proved.

Even worse, 49 per cent of Israelis believe he should resign immediately or suspend himself from his duties as Prime Minister, and only 38 per cent believe he should stay on, according to a second poll for Yedioth Ahronoth.

Mr Sharon even took the unusual step of telephoning a journalist for Yedioth, Israel's highest-selling newspaper, on Wednesday night to tell him he wasn't going to resign.

"I'm calling you so that there should be no mistake," Mr Sharon told the journalist, Simon Shiffer.

"I am not about to resign. I stress: I am not about to resign. I am busy with work from morning until night and I have no intention of making time for issues that are under examination."

Mr Sharon told a Likud youth meeting yesterday: "I came here as prime minister and the chairman of the Likud party... a position I intend to fill for many years, at least until 2007." General elections are scheduled for that year.

On Wednesday a prominent Israeli businessman, David Appel, was charged with bribing Mr Sharon with almost $700,000 when he was foreign minister in 1999. Although the indictment explicitly alleges that Mr Appel gave Mr Sharon a bribe, Mr Sharon has so far not been charged with taking bribes.

Israeli legal experts say the distinction hinges on whether Mr Sharon knew he was being bribed. The case surrounds Mr Appel's attempts to buy land on the Greek island of Patroklos in 1999, to develop as a tourist resort and casino.

Mr Sharon, who was foreign minister at the time, was running for the leadership of the Likud Party. Mr Appel is charged with bribing Mr Sharon to use his influence as Foreign Minister to persuade the Greek authorities to allow him to go ahead with the development project on Patroklos.

He is also charged with bribing Mr Sharon to have farmland Mr Appel owned in Israel re-zoned so it could be developed commercially. Mr Appel hired Mr Sharon's son, Gilad, as marketing adviser for the Greek island project, even though he had no obvious qualifications for the job, and agreed to pay him a massive sum in excess of $3m. In the end, Mr Sharon Jr received $100,000, and Mr Appel transferred $580,000 to a ranch business owned by the Sharon family and managed by Gilad.

For Mr Sharon, potentially the most damaging allegation in the Appel indictment is a reference to a conversation in which Mr Appel is supposed to have told Mr Sharon: "Your son Gilad will receive a lot of money". Mr Appel has also been charged with bribing the deputy Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. Mr Olmert has not been charged so far.

Mr Sharon has already been questioned by police on the affair, but he is expected to be questioned again in the coming days, in the light of new evidence that led to the charges against Mr Appel.

The final decision on whether or not to bring charges against Mr Sharon will rest with the attorney-general - but by a strange twist of fate, the post is currently vacant, and a new attorney-general is due to be appointed by the cabinet on Monday. Mr Sharon and Mr Olmert are now expected not to vote in that appointment, because of the possible conflict of interests.

Menachem Mazuz, currently deputy attorney-general, is expected to get the job - and find himself immediately thrust into making an extraordinarily importamt political decision. He will make it on the advice of the State Attorny, Edna Arbel - who is also acting attorney-general and has already said she believes there is enough evidence to charge Mr Sharon.

And Mr Sharon's worries do not end there. He is also expected to be questioned by police in the coming days on an entirely separate case, in which it is alleged he may have illegally used a $1.5m loan from the British-born businessman Cyril Kern to pay off illegal foreign campaign donations. There has been speculation that Mr Kern, who is based in South Africa, acted as a front for somebody else.

Despite Mr Sharon's defiance yesterday, possible contenders to succeed him as Likud leader have been getting themselves into position. And senior Likud ministers have reportedly sought legal advice on what they can do if Mr Sharon is charged but refuses to resign.