Foreign minister of Israel faces corruption indictment

An aide to Lieberman said he would accept the hearing, which would probably take months to prepare for and enable him to avoid an immediate resignation from the government. If an indictment is issued after the hearing, Lieberman will probably have to resign. Since his party is the second largest in the governing coalition, that could force early elections.

The charges against Lieberman, which he vigorously denies, have been 15 years in the making and involve accusations that while in the private sector he used a company to funnel illicit gifts and contributions. The expected formal charges are money laundering and fraud.

The attorney general’s announcement came within minutes of a long-scheduled speech by Lieberman at the quadrennial convention of the party of which he is the chairman, the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu. As a result, Lieberman took a slight detour from his hard-line political speech to say: “I know and you know that I have always acted in accordance with the law, and there is no reason to worry. After 15 years, I finally will have the opportunity to prove that I act legally.’’

He received a sustained standing ovation.

It is far from clear where the case is headed or whether it will politically damage or strengthen Lieberman, who heads the country’s third-largest party and seems to be gaining ground, especially among the young, for policies that concentrate on Arab citizens and left-wing groups whom he accuses of disloyalty.

Lieberman has long argued that the judicial system is run by liberals out to get him because of his political strength, and the timing of yesterday’s announcement was noted at his party’s convention as another example of that. He has said that the more the system goes after him, the more popular he will become.

A number of Israeli politicians have faced legal troubles, including a former prime minister, Ehud Olmert; a former president, Moshe Katzav; and a former finance minister, Abraham Hirchson.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement of support for Lieberman, saying that he hoped Lieberman would prove his innocence and continue his public service. Netanyahu needs Lieberman’s party, but tensions between the two have run high in recent months as the foreign minister has publicly differed with a number of government policies.

During the speech to his party faithful, Lieberman said he was opposed to efforts to restore quiet on the border with Gaza, where tensions were high last weekend with scores of rockets hitting Israel and the Israeli military killing 18 Palestinians, some of them civilians.

An unofficial truce restored the calm. But Lieberman said that the goal should not be calm, but the overthrow of the Hamas government. He has also ridiculed the notion, once championed by Netanyahu, that peace with the Palestinians could be negotiated in the course of a year. Lieberman believes it will be decades before there can be peace.