Jail for Israeli official

Press, 24 February 1977, Page 6

Jail for Israeli official

NZPA Te Aviv! Mr Asher Yadlin, once' ! named to head the Bank of I Israel, has been sentenced to I a five-year jail term for brib|ery and tax evasion in a case! .which seriously embarrassed; ! Israel’s ruling Labour Party. Mr Yadlin admitted accepting bribes and taking illegal! commissions on land deals' while he headed the powerful Israeli Trade Union Federation’s sickness fund. He said that he had accep-, ted the bribes to help fill the depleted coffers of the Labour Party. The illegal payments were made before the 1973 General Election. In addition to the jail sentence. he was fined a' total ;0f $27,000. Mr Yadlin was nominated I for the post of governor of the Bank of Israel last September. but the nomination; I was withdrawn after he was ■ detained by the police in ■ October. When he appeared in court for judgment last week Mr . Yadlin said he had passed ■on most of the bribe money Ito the Labour Party for its campaign fund “as well as millions of other (Israeli) pounds obtained illegally.” He was sentenced as the ! Labour Party prepared to open its convention in ad-; vance of Parliamentary elections scheduled for May. ; Under an arrangement between the defence, the prose-; I cution, and the court, Mr Yadlin changed his plea and pleaded guilty to five of seven charges. A decision on how two other charges are to be dealt; jwith was left to the prose-' I cution. 1