Under Fire: Ariel Sharon

Jerusalem, March 28 (Reuters): Israel’s chief prosecutor today officially recommended bringing charges against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a corruption scandal that could drive him from office.

The justice ministry said state attorney Edna Arbel had submitted a draft indictment to attorney general Menachem Mazuz, who would have the final say on whether to put the 76-year-old Prime Minister on trial.

A justice ministry source estimated it could take Mazuz, a career civil servant widely regarded as without any political agenda, up to two months to decide whether to charge Sharon.

The developments plunged Sharon deeper into trouble two weeks before a visit to Washington, where he hopes to win President George W. Bush’s backing for his plan to unilaterally evacuate Jewish settlements in Gaza and some in the West Bank. It put a cloud of suspicion over Sharon which may hamper his efforts to obtain cabinet backing for the Gaza withdrawal plan.

Sharon’s aides declined to comment on the matter. But one of his confidants told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper the central issue was “whether there is sufficient evidence which justifies throwing the country into a whirlpool”.

The case centres on payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars an Israeli land developer and Likud stalwart made to Sharon’s son Gilad, whom he hired in the late 1990s as an adviser on a never-completed project to build a Greek resort. Suspicions focus on if Sharon, then foreign minister, tried to help win Greek government approval for the enterprise. Sharon denies any wrongdoing.

Some cabinet ministers said Sharon should quit if Mazuz decided to indict Sharon. Others said he should suspend himself.

Arbel’s recommendation gave heart to a cabinet minister from a pro-settler party that has threatened to quit Sharon’s government if he goes ahead with the Gaza pullout plan. “I admire the courage of Edna Arbel...I admire this sort of judicial calibre,” tourism minister Benny Elon told army radio.