Israeli Officials Begin Criminal Probe of Weizman’s Money Ties

The controversy engulfing Israel’s outspoken president, Ezer Weizman, escalated Thursday when justice officials ordered a criminal investigation into allegations that he illegally received substantial sums of money from a French businessman.

It is the first time that an Israeli president has been investigated on criminal charges, the Justice Ministry said.

The attorney general opened the formal inquiry after learning that the president and millionaire Edouard Saroussi allegedly had a business relationship while Weizman was a Cabinet minister in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Weizman has acknowledged receiving a total of $450,000 from Saroussi, but he has said the cash was a legal gift and that he had no obligation to report it to the government. The revelation of possible business ties changes the case, legal experts said, because if the money was part of a business transaction, Weizman might have been obliged to pay taxes on it.

Police are also investigating whether the money constituted a bribe, an allegation Weizman has denied.

The 75-year-old president’s troubles began about three weeks ago when news of the money was first disclosed by an investigative reporter. Weizman has been under mounting pressure since then to resign but has refused.

Weizman’s attorney, Yaacov Weinroth, went on national television Thursday night to emotionally proclaim his client’s innocence. He reiterated that Weizman will not resign.

“The president is unequivocally innocent, spotless and free of all impropriety,” Weinroth said.

The presidency in Israel is traditionally a ceremonial post held by an elder statesman who largely stays above Israel’s often nasty political fray.

Weizman has had his own ideas about his role, however, and has both endeared himself to the public and enraged quite a few critics by speaking out on hot-button issues ranging from making peace with the Palestinians to how citizens should vote on an eventual deal with Syria.

Israel is being inundated with scandals these days; under some form of investigation are a newspaper publisher, a former prime minister and a senior police chief, among others.

But the Weizman affair has troubled many Israelis. Weizman’s life has been entwined with Israeli history: A member of one of the families that founded the Jewish state, Weizman was a fighter pilot who became chief of the air force that took Israel to victory in the 1967 Middle East War. He is a war hero, a father figure, a hawk who turned dovish--in short, the embodiment of how many Israelis see their national character.

Even supporters have begun to express doubts that Weizman retains the moral authority to continue in his post. Justice Minister Yossi Beilin on Thursday called on Weizman to remove himself temporarily from the job.

Weizman, in the second year of a second five-year term, could be interrogated by police as early as next week, Israeli television reported Thursday night.