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JERUSALEM (JPost) – Detectives from the National Fraud Unit arrested former Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski on suspicion of accepting more than NIS 3 million in bribes to ensure that the housing plan was approved, and of money laundering.
Speaking to Channel 10 News, Lupolianski appeared to attempt to shift responsibility to former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who was mayor of Jerusalem between 1993 and 2003 – when Holyland was approved.
“The mayor is the one who decides, that is the truth,” Lupolianski said. “The deputy mayor has no responsibility.”
MASSIVE BUILDING PROJECTS TAINTED WITH CORRUPTION
A senior Jerusalem councilman said he suspected the Holyland real estate affair was “just the start” and called on authorities to investigate a number of other massive building projects he believes may be tainted with corruption.
Councilman Meir Turgeman, the head of the opposition faction in the Jerusalem municipal council, told Israel Radio he fears plans to build at the YMCA compound, the Gilo Uptown project and Mamilla neighborhood might have been approved in return for kickbacks.
For news analysis on the Holyland corruption case click here.
JERUSALEM (JPost) – Former prime minister Ehud Olmert is a suspect in the Holyland real estate scandal, police announced Thursday.
According to police suspicions, between 1999 and 2008, the Holyland development company and associated land development projects, then owned by businessman Hillel Charni, paid tens of millions of shekels in bribes to senior public decision makers in the Jerusalem Municipality, members of its planning and construction committee, the Israel Lands Administration and others.
In exchange, the officials allegedly granted approval for the Holyland housing project in the Malha neighborhood and additional developments in the North.
Police suspect that Olmert accepted bribes from businessmen and other interested parties. According to media reports Olmert is the chief suspect in the scandal, and is expected to be questioned under warning in the next few days.
Meanwhile, another top suspect in the affair, former Olmert associate Uri Messer, was expected to be released to house arrest at a court hearing on Thursday afternoon. Messer is suspected as acting as an intermediary between bribe givers and takers and transferring hundreds of thousands of shekels in bribes.
Police also said Thursday that they had managed to secure a state witness in the affair, and announced the arrest of another elected official, who still serves in the capital’s municipality. The official also serves as the director of a major construction firm that was allegedly involved in the Holyland project.
JERUSALEM (JPost) – After being named the chief suspect in the Holyland real estate scandal, former prime minister Ehud Olmert vehemently denied involvement in the affair.
In a brief televised statement, the former prime minister called the allegations an unprecedented “attempt to kill my image,” but thanked police for lifting the gag order on his alleged involvement.
“I firmly declare, I was never offered a bribe, and never accepted a bribe from anyone in any way, either directly or indirectly.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
