ISRAEL: Trial begins for Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's son, charged after party funding scandal

Record ID: 398342

  • Title: ISRAEL: Trial begins for Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's son, charged after party funding scandal
  • Date: 24th January 2006
  • Summary: (W2) JERUSALEM (RECENT) (REUTERS) OMRI SHARON, WALKING TOWARDS MEDIA ;OMRI SHARON SPEAKING TO REPORTERS OUTSIDE HOSPITAL (VARIOUS) (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) OMRI SHARON SAYING: "Good evening, I came out here in the name of my family to thank the citizens of Israel who since Wednesday have been wrapping us with concern, prayers, warmth and love to my father's health". OMRI
  • Embargoed: 8th February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA998JHGZ7J4C2JA0ATTWISNIQ9
  • Story Text: The trial began at Tel Aviv's district court on
    Monday (January 23) of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
    Sharon's son Omri, who resigned his seat in the Israeli
    parliament after being convicted in a long-running party funding scandal.
    Omri Sharon had served as a deputy under the leadership
    of his father Sharon in the right-wing Likud Party, which
    Ariel Sharon quit in November to form the centrist movement Kadima.
    The 41-year-old gave up his parliamentary immunity last
    year after being charged with funnelling foreign donations,
    in violation of Israeli election law, to Ariel Sharon's
    1999 race to head the Likud.
    Amongst the charges, Omri was charged with accepting
    money from a Sharon confident from South Africa, Cyril
    Kern, and a sum of 3 million U.S. dollars, from Austrian
    businessman Martin Schlaff, for funding elections.
    He was convicted in a plea bargain and will be
    sentenced later this week. The charges carry a maximum
    sentence of seven years in jail, but Israeli media
    speculated he would receive a shorter term.
    Omri Sharon had requested that sentencing be delayed
    because of his father's illness. Ariel Sharon suffered a
    massive stroke on January 4 and has since been lying in a
    Jerusalem hospital in critical but stable condition.
    His son is considered a major political power-broker
    who planned to continue advising his father in his plan to lead his centrist Kadima party.
    Instead, Omri Sharon has spent the past three weeks at his father's bedside.
    "I came out here in the name of my family to thank the
    citizens of Israel who since Wednesday have been wrapping
    us with concern, prayers, warmth and love to my father's
    health," he told reporters outside the hospital recently.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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