Supreme Court to decide on Olmert prison term Monday
Former PM seeks to postpone six-year sentence until the end of his appeals process, but could begin serving it sooner
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
The Supreme Court said on Thursday that its decision as to whether former prime minister Ehud Olmert will commence a six-year prison term during his appeals process will be announced on Monday.
Olmert was sentenced on May 13, 2014, to six years in prison, a two-year suspended term, and a fine of NIS 1 million ($289,000) for his involvement in the graft scandal surrounding the construction of the Holyland residential complex.
The former prime minister was initially slated to report to prison on September 1. However, Supreme Court President Justice Asher Grunis delayed his sentence “until a ruling is made concerning the requests for postponement.”
Olmert is currently appealing his sentence, a process that, depending on Monday’s decision, could keep the 68-year-old former leader old out of prison until the legal proceedings conclude.
Olmert is also facing a retrial in a Jerusalem district court on charges of fraud, tax evasion and falsifying corporate records in what became known as the Talansky and Rishon Tours affairs, charges of which he was initially acquitted in 2012.
The Supreme Court ordered the retrial in August, saying it would allow new testimony from Olmert’s former assistant, Shula Zaken, including recordings of conversations between Olmert and Zaken, who provided the information last spring as part of a plea bargain. Zaken has already begun serving out the 11-month sentence handed down to her in May.
The Holyland affair is considered one of the worst corruption scandals in the country’s history. At the center of the case was the Holyland housing development, a hulking hilltop project that Jerusalem residents long suspected was tainted by corruption.
The case broke in 2010 after Shmuel Dachner, a businessman who was involved in the project, turned state’s witness. Dachner died from an illness in 2013, in the midst of the trial and before Olmert’s attorneys had completed their cross-examination of him.
The seven individuals convicted in the scandal alongside Olmert — Hillel Cherney, Avigdor Kelner, Meir Rabin, Uri Shitrit, Eliezer Simhayoff, Danny Dankner, and Uri Lupolianski — were also planning to appeal their convictions or have already begun to do so.
The Times of Israel Community.