Police again questioned United States businessman Moshe (Morris) Talansky for several hours on Monday at the Fraud Unit headquarters in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv. Talansky has been questioned several times as part of a police investigation into the latest corruption allegations against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. 
The latest interrogation, police said, was necessary and urgent.
Talansky, in Israel to visit with family since the Passover holiday, was initially questioned several weeks ago. The latest interrogation, police said, was necessary and urgent due to new evidence gathered from the Jerusalem city hall earlier on Monday.
Fraud Unit investigators searched offices belonging to the Jerusalem municipality for papers related to the latest Olmert allegations. They confiscated a series of documents and soon afterwards decided to question Talansky again. Police had searched the same Jerusalem city hall offices five months earlier in connection with a different corruption investigation involving the Prime Minister.
Fraud Unit officers said they probably will ask the courts to order Talansky to remain in Israel for further questioning. Talansky had requested that he be allowed to return to his seriously-ill wife in the United States.
Talansky is being questioned as a suspect in the case. Prosecutors are asking the courts to allow what is known as "early testimony" in coming days. Early testimony is a process in which the court hears testimony even before it has been decided to press charges. The procedure is generally requested when prosecutors believe that it will not be possible to obtain relevant testimony during the trial, should there be one, for reasons beyond state control. Olmert's attorneys have challenged the prosecutor's request to allow early testimony.
According to information revealed to the press, with some details still withheld under a partial gag order, Prime Minister Olmert is suspected of accepting cash bribes while mayor of Jerusalem and as Minister of Industry and Trade. Both Olmert and the suspected source of the illegal funds, Talansky, have denied that the cash that traded hands over a lengthy period of time was in any way a bribe.