Israel’s Olmert to testify on claims Barak took bribes

According to Israeli media reports, police authorities were instructed on Sunday to call in Olmert and collect testimony from the ex-premier over the bribery allegations he had made against Barak.
 
The report comes after tape recordings leaked a conversation earlier this month between Olmert and his former aide Shula Zaken, where the ex-prime minister accuses Barack of accepting “tens of millions” of Israeli shekels from lucrative arms deals while serving as minister for military affairs.
 
    “He took a bribe of millions and tens of millions. That insane man, he will end up in prison,” Olmert tells Zaken in the taped conversation in reference to Barak.
 
“You know Barak asked for the Audi A8 (a luxury car)? You know why?” Olmert says, adding, “Because I have an Audi. Just because of his jealously that I drive an Audi A8, that insane man wanted it. But he will end up in prison. Remember what I’m telling you Shula.”
 
Later in the conversation, Olmert says Barack “took a bribe worth millions, tens of millions” of shekels in arms deals, adding his predecessor was hiding the money “in Switzerland or in some lawyer’s office. He transfers it to a company in which Barak’s name does not appear.”
 
Barack has rejected the leaked conversation as a “baseless lie.”
 
Earlier this month, Israeli police were ordered to investigate the bribery allegations Olmert made against Barak in the recordings.
 
Corruption charges and similar scandals involving senior Israeli officials have rocked the Tel Aviv regime in recent years.
 
In May, an Israeli court handed a six-year jail term and a fine of one million shekels to Olmert, convicted in a bribery trial linked to a luxury property development in al-Quds (Jerusalem). He was accused of receiving bribes to push the project forward.