Agence France Presse  -- Arab News

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 6 February 2004 — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was grilled by police yesterday over a corruption scandal as his deputy headed to Washington to brief the Bush administration on plans to evacuate Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Members of the International Investigations Unit, led by its commander Yohanan Danino, questioned Sharon for two-and-a-half hours at his official residence in occupied Jerusalem over the so-called Greek Island affair, national police spokesman Gil Kleiman told AFP.

Police sources said Sharon did not exercise his right to silence and answered the questions, although no further details were available.

Sharon was last questioned in October, but yesterday’s session comes after the indictment last month of property developer David Appel on charges of trying to bribe Sharon when he was foreign minister.

If Sharon were to be charged, political commentators say he would have no choice but to resign from office. The final decision will come from the government’s legal counsel Menahem Mazuz, who acts as the attorney general.

Several high-level officials at the Justice Ministry, including state prosecutor Edna Arbel, have come out in favor of Sharon’s indictment.

Appel was indicted for allegedly trying to bribe Sharon through his son Gilad, along with deputy prime minister Ehud Olmert, then mayor of Jerusalem, in exchange for their help in securing a major Greek property deal.

Sharon has insisted that he had nothing to do with the scandal, which dates back to 1998.

At the time, Appel, a key figure behind the scenes in Likud, was planning a huge tourism project on a Greek island which needed authorization from Athens.

Appel tried to secure the help of Sharon and Olmert, both of whom were candidates for the Likud leadership, in exchange for financing their respective campaigns, the indictment said.

Tourism Minister Benny Elon, whose far-right National Union Party has threatened to quit the ruling coalition if Sharon forges ahead with his Gaza evacuation plan, said yesterday that the corruption scandal would weaken the premier’s bid to sell the proposal to Washington.

“The prime minister will arrive in a weakened position in America and that will weaken the security of Israel,” he told army radio.

Sharon is set to travel to the United States for talks with President Geroge W. Bush later this month to explain his “disengagement plan” and defend Israel’s West Bank separation barrier whose legality is to judged by the International Court of Justice.

In a surprise move, Olmert was dispatched to Washington where he was to hold talks yesterday with Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Sharon was forced to send Olmert instead of Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who opposes a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza on the grounds that it would encourage Palestinian attacks.

The opposition to the proposals by the right-wing parties in his coalition and members of his own party has prompted Sharon to consider a referendum on the issue.

The powerful Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz gave his backing to the Gaza evacuation yesterday, telling the Yediot Aharonot daily that it would “deliver better security for the citizens of Israel than today.”

Meanwhile, the US State Department placed adverts in the Palestinian media offering up to $5 million for information on an October attack on a diplomatic convoy in Gaza that killed three Americans.