Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein was expected to announce yesterday that, after six years of investigations into money-laundering allegations, the main charges against Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman would be dropped leaving only one relatively minor charge.

This represents a reversal of Mr Weinstein’s earlier, tentative decision in April 2011 to indict Mr Lieberman with a charge that co=uld have forced him to resign from politics.

Mr Weinstein has been concerned that potential witnesses living outside Israel would be unwilling to testify, and has overruled colleagues who say that the indictment should stand.

Mr Lieberman may instead be indicted for breach of trust over separate, lesser allegation. This, however, would not stop the foreign minister from running in the elections and continuing as an MK but could prevent him from serving as a minister in the future.