Arkady Gaidamak, an Israeli businessman of Russian origin, has returned to Israel after two years of self-imposed exile in Russia to attend a court session reviewing money-laundering charges against him.
Gaidamak, who has claimed his innocence, is suspected of entering a conspiracy with several bankers to launder over $180 million.
The tycoon owns the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team among various business assets and is renowned for building camps for refugees fleeing rocket attacks in the north of the country during the 2006 war with Lebanon.
Gaydamak ran for Mayor of Jerusalem in November 2008, but he received only 3.6 percent of the vote and his party, the Social Justice, won no seats on the city council.
Last year, the 58-year-old businessman was convicted by a French court of illegal arms deliveries to Angola, tax evasion and corruption and was sentenced in absentia to six years in prison.
The businessman's lawyers in France have immediately appealed the sentence.
TEL AVIV, October 9 (RIA Novosti)
