Prosecutor faces charges over Sharon loan leak

An Israeli prosecutor was herself facing charges yesterday after it was revealed she leaked the details of a corruption scandal that briefly threatened to derail Ariel Sharon's campaign for re-election.

Liora Glatt-Berkovich, a Tel Aviv prosecutor, admitted she had passed an Israeli journalist details of a police investigation into a $1.5m (£928,000) loan to Mr Sharon's family from a businessman based in South Africa, according to Israel Radio.

Ms Glatt-Berkovich was reported to have said she leaked the information to hurt Mr Sharon's chances in next week's election because her son is about to be drafted into the Israeli army and she does not want him to be sent to the West Bank under Mr Sharon's crackdown on the Palestinians.

It has been reported that Mr Sharon used the money to pay back illegal foreign campaign contributions that he used to win the Likud leadership in 1999. Under Israeli law it is forbidden to accept campaign contributions from abroad.

When the loan investigation was first reported Mr Sharon's support was hit badly, but he has since recovered, and the polls are predicting a comfortable victory for his Likud Party in the election on Tuesday.

Police said yesterday they were investigating corruption allegations against Mr Sharon's main election rival, the Labour leader Amram Mitzna, who is predicted to suffer a heavy defeat at the polls. It has been reported that Mr Mitzna, the Mayor of Israel's third city, Haifa, accepted office space from a building contractor in return for construction permits.

Legal experts accused police of attacking press freedom after it emerged that they threatened to prosecute the journalist who broke the story of the Sharon loan affair when he refused to divulge that Ms Glatt-Berkovich was his source.