The younger Sharon, who was elected to the Knesset just two and a half years ago, is accused of violating campaign funding regulations, lying under oath, breach of trust and more. He agreed to have his parliamentary immunity lifted, in the certain knowledge that his Knesset colleagues would have voted to do so in any event.
The indictment includes charges of filing false reports dealing with the 1999 election campaign of his father, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The investigation began almost four years ago, in October 2001.
Just yesterday, it was reported that weeks of negotiations for a plea-bargain agreement were on the verge of being successfully concluded, and that Omri Sharon would not face a jail sentence. Last night, however, the surprise announcement was made that no agreement had been reached, and that Sharon would in fact be indicted. There is still a last-gasp chance that a plea-bargain agreement will be reached, however.
The dispute revolved around the punishment to be meted out to Sharon Jr. Omri was willing to accept a six-month sentence, which in all likelihood would have been converted to six months of public service, while Mazuz insisted on nine months, which would have meant actual prison time. No agreement was reached, and a court will make the final decision.
Omri Sharon, 40, is divorced and has two children. He retired from the IDF with the rank of Major, and serves on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and four other committees. He attained notoriety in 2001, just before his father was first elected Prime Minister, when he met in Vienna with a special envoy of Yasser Arafat, Mohammed Rashid. The Sharons were attacked for talking with PA leaders even as the Oslo War raged, despite the wide consensus that no negotiations must take place under fire.
As Omri's meetings with Arafat and Arafat's aides began to pile up over the course of the year, the Sharons came under sharp fire for mixing their own financial concerns with matters of national interest. Correspondent Haggai Huberman summed up the suspicions as follows: "The people involved in the talks [with the PA figures] leave little room for doubt: The [Jericho] casino's attorney is Dov Weisglass, who represented Sharon himself in his suit against Time Magazine. Weisglass went with Omri Sharon, before the elections, to meet with Rashid in Austria, and with Martin Schlaff, representing the Austrian owners of the casino... And, of course, Yossi Ginosar, who also went with Omri Sharon and who is also financially involved in the casino..."
Then-Attorney General Elyakim Rubenstein said, "Sending a family member to official meetings is not the way a properly-run country does things."
The indictment includes charges of filing false reports dealing with the 1999 election campaign of his father, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The investigation began almost four years ago, in October 2001.
Just yesterday, it was reported that weeks of negotiations for a plea-bargain agreement were on the verge of being successfully concluded, and that Omri Sharon would not face a jail sentence. Last night, however, the surprise announcement was made that no agreement had been reached, and that Sharon would in fact be indicted. There is still a last-gasp chance that a plea-bargain agreement will be reached, however.
The dispute revolved around the punishment to be meted out to Sharon Jr. Omri was willing to accept a six-month sentence, which in all likelihood would have been converted to six months of public service, while Mazuz insisted on nine months, which would have meant actual prison time. No agreement was reached, and a court will make the final decision.
Omri Sharon, 40, is divorced and has two children. He retired from the IDF with the rank of Major, and serves on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and four other committees. He attained notoriety in 2001, just before his father was first elected Prime Minister, when he met in Vienna with a special envoy of Yasser Arafat, Mohammed Rashid. The Sharons were attacked for talking with PA leaders even as the Oslo War raged, despite the wide consensus that no negotiations must take place under fire.
As Omri's meetings with Arafat and Arafat's aides began to pile up over the course of the year, the Sharons came under sharp fire for mixing their own financial concerns with matters of national interest. Correspondent Haggai Huberman summed up the suspicions as follows: "The people involved in the talks [with the PA figures] leave little room for doubt: The [Jericho] casino's attorney is Dov Weisglass, who represented Sharon himself in his suit against Time Magazine. Weisglass went with Omri Sharon, before the elections, to meet with Rashid in Austria, and with Martin Schlaff, representing the Austrian owners of the casino... And, of course, Yossi Ginosar, who also went with Omri Sharon and who is also financially involved in the casino..."
Then-Attorney General Elyakim Rubenstein said, "Sending a family member to official meetings is not the way a properly-run country does things."