Israeli government lawyer suspended for leaking Sharon document

JERUSALEM -- Israel's attorney general suspended a government prosecutor on Wednesday who admitted supplying a reporter with information about an investigation into Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's campaign finances.

The suspension came after Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein was criticized for interrogating the journalist who broke the story about a questionable $1.5 million loan to Sharon.

Wednesday's developments refocused attention on the scandals that have plagued Sharon and his Likud Party just six days before elections.

But polls continued to show Likud and its hawkish allies comfortably ahead of the dovish Labor Party, where leadership infighting has dampened prospects in next Tuesday's election even more.

A poll to be published Thursday in the Haaretz daily shows Likud winning 30 seats in the 120-seat parliament and Labor winning up to 20, according to the paper's Web site, which gave no further details. The results were virtually the same as polls published earlier this week.

A sign of the deep trouble facing Labor and its candidate for premier, Haifa Mayor Amram Mitzna, came at a Likud election rally Tuesday night in Rishon Letzion, south of Tel Aviv. The city's mayor, Meir Nitsan of Labor, introduced Sharon and said he hoped the prime minister would be re-elected and form a new "national unity" government with Labor.

An outraged Mitzna said Wednesday that Nitsan is "no longer a member of the Labor Party." Mitzna has ruled out joining a Sharon-led government and insists he still can win the election.

Labor pulled out of Sharon's broad-based government in November, triggering the elections. Many Labor members contend that during the party's 20-month stay in the Cabinet it lost legitimacy and support because of Sharon's ever-harsher military moves against the Palestinians, with whom Labor had pioneered peace efforts.

Although Mitzna replaced Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who led Labor into Sharon's government and served as defense minister, he is being blamed for Labor's poor showing in the polls, and there have been rumblings about replacing him as candidate for prime minister before the election.

Recent scandals produced only a temporary dip in Likud's poll results. Three party activists were indicted in connection with allegations of vote-buying, shakedowns and underworld links concerning internal elections for parliamentary candidates.

On Jan. 7, Haaretz reported that Sharon and his sons received $1.5 million from a South Africa-based businessman to help pay back illegal contributions to a previous campaign. Police reporter Baruch Kra based his article on a leaked Justice Ministry document and disclosed that an investigation was in progress.

That set off a flurry of political charges and countercharges and triggered an investigation into who leaked the document.

On Wednesday, a day after police interrogated Kra on suspicion of obstruction of justice, Rubinstein said state prosecutor Liora Glatt-Berkowitz had confessed to leaking the document and had been suspended.

Rubinstein said the prosecutor turned over the document for "ideological reasons," implying she wanted to help Labor and embarrass Sharon.

Haaretz publisher Amos Schoken said Rubinstein had not provided a convincing reason for questioning Kra, which he called an "unprecedented step" hurting freedom of speech in Israel.

"It is inconceivable that a journalist will be interrogated ... about his sources, it is a complete disruption of the system regarding the role of a journalist and the media in a democratic society," Schoken told Israel's Army Radio.

Haaretz said that Kra did not disclose his source.

Rubinstein dismissed criticism of Kra's interrogation, calling it a "secondary issue."

Yuli Tamir, a spokeswoman for the Labor Party, said the questioning of Kra raised "fears of politicization of the attorney general's institution."

"The witch hunt for prosecutors and journalists, instead of an investigation of a prime minister suspected of accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust, shows a total loss of judgment," Tamir said.