Police recommend Lieberman indictment

JERUSALEM, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Israeli police have recommended that prosecutors indict Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on bribery, fraud and other charges, sources said.

Citing an unnamed police source, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Sunday that police are also recommending charges of money laundering, witness harassment and obstruction of justice against the right-wing Yisrael Beitenu party leader.

Investigators have long suspected Lieberman of establishing shell companies and front men to launder illegal funds and benefits and funneling them into his own pockets, which police told Haaretz may have continued even after Lieberman became a public official.

"For 13 years the police have conducted a campaign of persecution against me," the foreign minister said in a statement released to the newspaper. "As much as my political strength and the strength of Yisrael Beitenu rise, the campaign of persecution also intensifies."

The newspaper said it is up to Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to approve the police recommendation before Lieberman is formally charged -- a process that could take weeks or months.