JERUSALEM — Israel’s Justice Ministry filed its indictment against former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in a Jerusalem court on Sunday, charging him with breach of trust and fraud in a case that could further harm his political career.
Lieberman is accused of trying to advance the career of a former diplomat after the envoy relayed information to him about a criminal investigation into the former Cabinet minister’s business dealings.
On Dec. 13, the Justice Ministry released a draft indictment to both Lieberman and the press. On Sunday, an amended version of that draft was filed in the Jerusalem Magistrates Court after prosecutors received testimony suggesting he was more deeply involved than previously thought in trying to promote the diplomat.
The actual charges remained unchanged.
Lieberman, who denies any wrongdoing, resigned his Cabinet post earlier this month after he was informed of the pending charges, though he remains a member of the parliament. He did not appear in court on Sunday.
The diplomat he tried to promote, former ambassador to Belarus Zeev Ben-Aryeh, reached a plea bargain with the state in the case earlier this year.
The indictment did not address the main suspicions against Lieberman that were the focus of a years-long investigation. Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein ultimately decided that prosecutors did not have a strong enough case to charge Lieberman with illicitly receiving millions of dollars from businessmen and laundering the cash through straw companies in eastern Europe.
While he was charged with lesser offenses, Lieberman’s political future could be compromised if the court that hears the case decides to convict him of a crime that carries what is known in Israeli law as “moral turpitude.”
Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party is running on a joint list with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud in the Jan. 22 election.
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 in 2010 by joining the Turkish-led Mavi Marmara flotilla, which was stormed by Israeli naval commandos who clashed with pro-Palestinian activists, killing nine.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 12/31/2012