Disgraced former banker Dankner wins parole from prison

Dani Dankner to be released after serving a year and three months of two-year sentence

Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.

Dani Dankner, left, seen on February 1, 2008, during his tenure as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Hapoalim. (Roni Schutzer/Flash 90)
Dani Dankner, left, seen on February 1, 2008, during his tenure as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Hapoalim. (Roni Schutzer/Flash 90)

Parole was granted Thursday to disgraced former banker Dani Dankner, jailed for his part in one of the biggest corruption scandals in Israel’s history, one that saw former prime minister Ehud Olmert convicted as well.

Dankner was sentenced to two years in Ma’asiyahu Prison for brokering bribes in the so-called Holyland Affair, which revolved around corruption in a high-rise real estate project of the same name in Jerusalem.

He is to be released in a month after having served out a year and three months of his sentence, officials said Thursday.

It is Dankner’s second prison term, having been released two years ago from an eight-month sentence for breach of trust.

Last month President Reuven Rivlin rejected Dankner’s appeal for a pardon, saying the personal and family reasons he cited also existed at the time of his sentencing and therefore did not represent a change in circumstances that would warrant his release.

The attorney general’s office agreed to the parole on condition that Dankner adhere to a rehabilitation program.

Olmert, who is serving a combined 26-month jail sentence on various corruption charges, began his sentence at Ma’asiyahu Prison in Ramle in February 2016 for graft convictions related to his time as a government minister and mayor of Jerusalem. He’ll be eligible for the standard early parole process in the fall of 2017, a after a request for a pardon was denied last month by President Reuven Rviln.

Olmert was one of eight former officials and businessmen convicted in March 2014 in the Holyland real estate corruption case —
among them former Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupoliansky — which officials have characterized as among the largest graft cases in Israel’s history.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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