State Prosecutor apologizes to Olmert for libel
In letter to former PM, Moshe Lador says he hadn't been aware that Olmert had returned the money when he gave an interview in which he called the loan 'scandalous'
State Prosecutor Moshe Lador has been forced to apologize to former prime minister Ehud Olmert in light of a libel suit Olmert filed against him.
In an interview to Haaretz in February 2011, Lador referred to a $75,000 loan that Olmert received 17 years ago from American businessman Joe Elmaliach as an "unusually outrageous story" and claimed that the former premier never returned the loan.
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Olmert's attorneys said the remarks "severely violated" the former PM's "basic right as a defendant and a suspect to fair proceedings" and constituted libel.
Olmert demanded NIS 150,000 (about $41,000) in compensation.
Lador: I'm sorry if Olmert felt hurt (Photo: Moti Kimchi)
Lador told Olmert in a letter that he was "sorry that when giving the interview I wasn't aware of the report Mr. Olmert had filed with the State Comptroller in July 2010 that said he had returned the money he'd gotten from Dr. Elmaliach in 1993."
"The point of my statements was to report the positions and actions of the state prosecution as they were presented in court, pertaining to how files on public figures are treated, among other things," Lador wrote.
"My statements in the interview were not intended to harm Mr. Olmert – there was no intent to hurt him in any way, but in any case I express my regret that Mr. Olmert felt hurt by the statements," Lador said.
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