Sharon Not Charged in Finance Scandal

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will not face charges in a long-simmering scandal over campaign financing, but one of his sons will be indicted, the Justice Ministry said Thursday.

Atty. Gen. Menachem Mazuz’s decision to bring charges against Omri Sharon, a lawmaker and close advisor to his father, is a blow to the prime minister as he girds for a series of political confrontations over his plan to uproot the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Mazuz found insufficient evidence to file charges against Sharon over the alleged use of shell companies to funnel illegal foreign contributions to his 1999 primary campaign. But the Justice Ministry said Omri Sharon would be indicted once a hearing was held to revoke his parliamentary immunity.

Corruption scandals are commonplace in the Israeli political world. But if the prime minister had been charged, he would have risked being driven from office at a crucial time of peacemaking overtures toward the Palestinians.

Omri Sharon, 40, is expected to face charges that include fraud, perjury and breach of trust in connection with campaign financing. If convicted, he will face up to seven years in jail.

Although not charged, the prime minister was not exonerated. The Justice Ministry said the decision to drop the charges was based on insufficient evidence. The attorney general also declined to indict Dov Weisglass and Uri Shani, longtime advisors to the Israeli leader, for the same reason.

Last year, Sharon escaped prosecution in another scandal, the so-called Greek Island Affair, from his days as foreign minister in the 1990s. That contretemps involved allegations of payments by an Israeli businessman in return for political favors to help promote a resort project.

A separate investigation is being conducted on allegations that the Sharons and the prime minister’s other son, Gilad, received an illicit $1.5-million loan from a South African businessman, Cyril Kern.