Analysts said the indictment of real estate developer David Appel increases the chances that Sharon may face charges -- a move that will compel him to leave office.

Appel was indicted for giving Sharon hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote an ambitious real estate project in Greece when Sharon was foreign minister in 1999, and to help rezone urban land near Tel Aviv before and during his term as prime minister.

The indictment also charged Appel with providing bribes to Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to promote the Greek project when Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem in the late 1990s, and charged that Sharon's son, Gilad, was hired as a consultant in the Greek project, serving as a middleman in accepting the bribes.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 31, 2004
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