Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: Channel 2 News reported tonight that a decision to
indict would be made within 2 weeks.

Lador: Decision on whether to indict PM coming 'very soon'
Jul. 21, 2008 DAN IZENBERG and jpost.com staff , THE JERUSALEM POST
www.jpost.com
/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331045491&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

A decision on whether to indict Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will be made
"very soon," State Attorney Moshe Lador said Monday.

Lador said that the body of evidence gathered against the prime minister
would soon be handed to Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz, who would then be
tasked with deciding whether to take Olmert to court.

In the fourth day of a grueling cross-examination of US businessman Morris
Talansky, the defense team for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert focused their
questions on what is the most serious of the allegations against the premier
and his close friend, Uri Messer, in which the two are accused of acquiring
funds from a company co-owned by Talansky without his knowledge.

Attorney Nevot Tel-Tzur, who took over the questioning on Monday from
Olmert's chief counsellor, Eli Zohar, started the day's proceedings by
attacking a testimony that Talansky originally gave in direct examination on
May 27. At that time, Talansky said that more than $200,000 in multiple
transactions had been transferred from the account of Israel Developments,
Ltd. without his knowledge.

In his testimony then, Talansky said that while he did not know who had
transferred this money from his company to Messer, he had his suspicions as
to who it was.

However, during cross examination on Monday, Tel-Tzur presented a general
power of attorney that Talansky had given Messer allowing him to make
transfers from Talansky's account and send documents in his name.

Talansky said all along that he might have given Messer a power of attorney
to deal with the purchase of a house in Jerusalem for him and his family,
but nothing more.

Tel-Tzur then continued his questioning and presented documents showing that
Talansky had given his instructions to the manager of the account of Israel
Developments, to have Messer transfer the money into Messer's own account.
Again, Talansky said that he did not remember having written such a letter,
even while confirming that he had signed the instruction.

Tel-Tzur accused Talanksy of lying to the court when he said he could not
remember these transactions. He showed Talansky a letter sent several days
before the transfer instruction in which Talansky had asked to open a line
of credit at the bank. Tel-Tzur said that in order to transfer the money,
the US businessman needed to make complex arrangements beforehand, and it
was impossible that he did not remember them. Tel-Tzur also showed documents
proving that in addition to the $100,000 transfer to Messer's Bank Leumi
account, Talansky also asked for an additional $110,000 to be transferred
from the same company to his private account at City Bank, in New York. He
also presented documents showing that Talansky had ordered another transfer
of $60,000 to Messer's account at Bank Leumi in Jerusalem.

Tel-Tzur accused the US businessman of lying when he said that he had not
seen copies of his own instructions to the bank to make these transfers;
however, the State argued that these instructions had not been handed over
to the police until after Talanksy's initial testimony on May 27.