Jerusalem, Jan. 25 (Reuters): Israel’s cabinet today picked the man who could ultimately decide Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s fate in a bribery scandal, appointing a veteran civil servant to the post of attorney general.

Avoiding any conflict of interest, Sharon did not participate in the 20-0 cabinet vote that tapped Menachem Mazuz for the job, Israel Radio said. Mazuz served as deputy attorney general for the past decade and replaces Eliyakim Rubinstein, who held the job for seven years.

Prosecutors said last week they were weighing legal action against Sharon after charging David Appel, a land developer and political kingmaker, with trying to bribe him.

A recommendation to indict the Prime Minister, a move that could bring public and cabinet pressure on him to resign, would go to the attorney general for final approval. A justice ministry source has said any such decision could be weeks or months away.

Appel, a Likud stalwart, has denied all charges, which relate to a period in the 1990s when Sharon was foreign minister. Sharon has also denied any wrongdoing.

Mazuz was the favoured candidate of justice minister Yosef Lapid, whose centrist Shinui party has pledged to stamp out corruption in government.

Politicians from across the Israeli political spectrum and Israeli jurists welcomed Mazuz’s appointment.

“I don’t envy him,” Amnon Rubinstein, a veteran jurist and former cabinet minister, said of Mazuz and the decision he could face in the bribery scandal.