Mrs. Leah Rabin was indicted by a Tel Aviv District Court today for illegal possession of foreign currency. The charge sheet referred to a joint bank account dept by Premier Yitzhak Rabin and Mrs. Rabin in Washington, D.C. after 1973 when Rabin’s tenure as Ambassador to the U.S. ended and they returned to Israel.
According to Israeli law, all funds held abroad by Israeli nationals must be re-deposited in Israel when they return. The charge sheet said the Rabins’ account amounted to $21,101 until it was closed last month. If convicted, Mrs. Rabin will face a prison term of up to three years and a fine amounting to three times the amount of the illegally held currency. According the legal sources, however, Israeli courts have never imposed prison sentences for this sort of offense.
Rabin himself will not be prosecuted. Under an arrangement worked out between Treasury officials and Attorney General Aharon Barak, he was given an administrative fine of IL 15,000.
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