Israel's former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman was formally
indicted on Sunday on charges of breach of trust and fraud, allegations
that could hurt his political future if he is convicted. Lieberman
resigned earlier this month after he was informed of the pending
charges. The Justice Ministry later revised the wording, though not the
charges, and said it filed the indictment in a Jerusalem court on
Sunday. Lieberman is accused of advancing a former ambassador
after he relayed information to the foreign minister about a criminal
investigation into his business dealings.
Lieberman denies wrongdoing. His
Yisrael Beiteinu party is running with Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's Likud in the Jan. 22 election, and he is expected to serve
as a lawmaker in the next parliament. In other political news,
Israel's Supreme Court unanimously rejected an election committee's
attempt to disqualify an Arab lawmaker from running for parliament again
next month because she took part in a flotilla that tried to breach
Israel's naval blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
The lawmaker,
Hanin Zoabi, enraged many Israelis by joining the Turkish-led flotilla,
which was stormed by Israeli naval commandos who clashed with
pro-Palestinian activists, killing nine. The Israeli military says the
soldiers acted in self-defense after being attacked on the deck. Zoabi
was nearly assaulted in parliament by another lawmaker and subsequently
was stripped of some of her parliamentary privileges. Earlier
this month, an Israeli elections committee voted to disqualify her from
running in next months' election.
She appealed that decision to the
Supreme Court, which overturned it, as it has rejected the committee's
attempts in previous years to bar certain Arab candidates from running. The
court said in its ruling that it would release its reason for
overturning the decision at a later date. Under Israel's election law,
the court had to issue its ruling by Sunday.
source : the jakarta post
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