JERUSALEM, Oct 7: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is to face questioning on Tuesday over his suspected involvement in a financial scandal, a police spokesman said on Sunday.

He will be “questioned by three investigators on Tuesday from 9 am (0700 GMT) at his official residence in Jerusalem on the Bank Leumi affair”, Mickey Rosenfeld said.

Olmert faces a criminal probe into his alleged abuse of influence in the privatisation of Israel’s second-largest bank when he was acting finance minister in 2005.

Following the police announcement, Olmert’s office said the privatisation of Leumi Bank “was one of the most successful privatisation moves in Israel, that led to a record sale of state-owned property.” The prime minister has kept Tuesday and Thursday entirely free for giving his testimony to police, his office said in a statement.

“The prime minister is certain that at the conclusion of the investigation it will be revealed that all the decisions he had taken in the privatisation process were professional... and he had acted cleanhandedly.” —AFP