Israel prosecutors hold graft hearing for Lieberman

Israel's attorney general was on Tuesday to preside over a two-day hearing to decide whether to indict Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on charges of fraud, breach of trust and money laundering. Lieberman's four-strong legal team will face a grilling by State Prosecutor Moshe Lador and other top prosecutors after which Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein will decide whether or not to press charges, judicial sources said. In April 2011, Weinstein announced he was considering pressing criminal charges against Lieberman, pending a hearing. The alleged offences include "fraud, breach of trust, receiving something by deception, money-laundering and tampering with a witness," a justice ministry statement said at the time. The indictment says Lieberman is suspected of receiving "millions of dollars" between 2001 to 2008 when he served as an MP and then as a cabinet minister. Prosecutors say they have evidence that Lieberman set up a system of straw companies through which he received the money, which was never declared. Following this week's hearing, Weinstein is expected to make a decision on whether or not to indict the minister in the coming months, press reports said. Lieberman has in the past pledged to step down both as a minister and MP if he is charged, but it is unclear what the consequences might be for the coalition. Lieberman's ultranationalist Israel Beitenu party is the second largest in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government after the premier's rightwing Likud faction, and it is the third-largest in parliament. Lieberman has since 1996 been investigated several times over allegations of fraud and corruption, but has never been charged. He denies any wrongdoing and says the police investigations are politically motivated. The Soviet-born former bouncer has long courted controversy with his hardline stance on Israel's Arab minority, with critics accusing him of racism. A resident of the West Bank settlement of Nokdim, he pleaded guilty in 2001 to assaulting a Palestinian youth who had hit his son.