JERUSALEM, Nov 5: Israel’s outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is to be questioned this week for the ninth time since claims of graft emerged in May, police said on Wednesday.

“The prime minister will be questioned at his official residence in Jerusalem on Friday,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

Olmert has handed in his resignation but will remain at the head of a caretaker government until after general elections scheduled for Feb 10.

Police in September recommended indicting Olmert over suspicions he had unlawfully accepted cash-stuffed envelopes from a US businessman and for billing the same overseas trips several times over, allegedly using the ill-gotten gains to pay for private trips. Olmert insists he is innocent.—AFP