The Knesset’s House Committee voted 10-4 today to suspend independent MK Samuel Flatto-Sharon who was sentenced to nine months imprisonment by a Jerusalem magistrates court last week for bribing voters in the 1977 elections.
In an unrelated action yesterday, the full Knesset voted 36-23 to strip Religious Affairs Minister Aharon Abu-Hatzeira of his parliamentary immunity so that he may stand trial for alleged criminal offenses during his term as Mayor of Ramle five years ago.
Abu-Hatzeira is now awaiting the verdict in his trial for soliciting and accepting bribes from religious institutions that received funds from his ministry. The trial ended last month but a second waiver of immunity was required for him to face the new charges. The House Committee voted 10-1 last week for the waiver. Committee chairman Moshe Meron said the charges include theft, fraud, breach of trust, conspiracy and misappropriation of funds by Abu-Hatzeira from a charitable institution he headed in 1976-77.
Flatto, the first Knesset member to be suspended, said he is appealing his conviction and called the House Committee’s decision a “contemptible” political vote. He said he intends to run for re-election on June 30 and was sure that “justice will prevail.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
