Ex-premier Olmert appeals sentence in Talansky affair

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert appealed to the Supreme Court on Thursday over his graft sentence in the so-called Talansky affair, asking the court to push off his eight-month prison term.

The sentence, which comes with a NIS 100,000 ($26,000) fine, was handed down in May, months after his conviction for accepting envelopes full of cash from American businessman and fundraiser Morris Talansky in exchange for political favors.

Olmert is also in the midst of appealing another corruption conviction over the Holyland residential complex, which carries a six-year jail term.

Olmert earlier in May asked the court to be lenient in his sentencing for the graft conviction, telling judges he had suffered during his court trials over the last seven years.

The state prosecutor had urged the Jerusalem District Court to sentence the ex-premier to eight to 18 months for the Talansky conviction.

In their decision, the judges wrote that a “black flag” was fluttering over Olmert’s behavior, necessitating the jail sentence.

“A black flag of immorality and corruption waves above the defendant’s actions,” state prosecutor Uri Korb told the press after the decision. “The court held that there can be no penalty other than imprisonment.”

Last year, Olmert was given six years in prison for his role in a massive real estate bribery scheme — called the largest corruption case in the country’s history — surrounding the Holyland residential building project in Jerusalem.

He has been able to stay out of prison, however, while appeal proceedings play out.

The judges in the Talansky case ruled that Olmert would have to begin his term in 45 days, and that it could not be transmuted to community service or suspended.

“The penalty imposed on Olmert only adds to the great suffering he has already incurred,” his defense team said in a statement. “This is a harsh sentence, and we intend to appeal against it.”

“We respect the court verdict but believe that there were problems and defects,” Olmert’s lawyer Eyal Rozovsky said after the ruling was handed down. “We believe that it was not proven that Olmert made private use of funds.”

Korb had requested that the Talansky affair sentence not be served simultaneously with the Holyland sentence. He also asked the court to fine Olmert an amount exceeding the bribes he is believed to have received from Talansky — which amounted to some $600,000.

The March guilty verdict in the Talansky case came some six months after the Supreme Court ordered a retrial sought by prosecutors after they obtained new testimony from Olmert’s former assistant Shula Zaken, including recordings of conversations between Olmert and Zaken. Zaken provided the new information last spring as part of a plea bargain.

Overturning its earlier decision from 2012, the three-member court unanimously found the former premier guilty of fraud, breach of trust and aggravated fraud.

The legal battle over the Talansky money was focused on whether the funds were personal gifts or a political exchange.

Talansky, an Orthodox Jew from New York’s Long Island, had testified the money was spent on expensive cigars, first-class travel and luxury hotels, while insisting he received nothing from Olmert in return.

Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman, one of the three judges on the panel, insisted that even without Zaken’s testimony, there had been sufficient evidence to convict Olmert for these crimes in the original trial.

Yet the audio recordings by Zaken buttressed the allegation that Olmert had accepted the “cash envelopes” from Talansky while mayor of Jerusalem, and failed to report the bank account in which the funds were held to the proper authorities. The court found that Olmert made personal use of the money, including paying tens of thousands of dollars to Zaken.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.