According to the daily Haaretz, police on Friday will be removing their gloves in the third round of questioning of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The daily quoted unnamed “senior police officials” stating they are angered at the prime minister who is making a mockery of the law which he was elected to protect and enforce.

One of the events prompting police to release angry statements was accusations by Amir Dan, Olmert’s PR man, that police are intentionally leaking information pertaining to Moshe Talansky’s testimony to damage the prime minister’s case.

Earlier this week, Israel Police representatives in New York City questioned Sharon Tzur in the Israeli Consulate, seeking to corroborate her testimony with that of Talansky. Her name came up numerous times in the testimony provided by Moshe Talansky.

Amir Dan is also accusing police of acting unethically and possibly illegally, seeking to corroborate testimony of witnesses by leading and instructing the state’s witnesses. Haaretz reports that senior commander involved in the questioning of the prime minister are signaling that the game is over and they will now be taken a sterner position in dealing with Mr. Olmert.

Dan stated, “The actions of police will be the subject of a future investigation, of this we can be certain.”

Haaretz quotes officials as saying, this time, Olmert will not be permitted to take phone calls during questioning and his light attitude towards police officials will not be tolerated.

Police report the investigating team that traveled to the United States interviewed 15 witnesses tied to the case.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)