Citing his poor health, the parole board of the Israel Prison’s Authority rules to immediately release former Ramat Gan mayor Zvi Bar, 82, after serving nine months of a three-year prison sentence.
In 2015 the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced Bar, who served as the mayor of the Tel Aviv suburb for nearly 25 years, to five and a half years in prison after he was convicted of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for promoting a number of real estate projects during his term in office. He was also ordered to pay fines of NIS 800,000 ($224,000).
Former Ramat Gan mayor Zvi Bar at the Supreme Court on December 11, 2016 in Jerusalem. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
The Supreme Court upheld his conviction but ruled that his age and medical condition warranted his sentence be reduced to three years.
Last month, President Reuven Rivlin, citing his deteriorating health and advanced age, granted Bar clemency and reduced his sentence further to just 15 months.
The parole board’s decision means Bar could leave prison by this evening and will be required to report to police once every two weeks and attend a rehabilitation program until the end of the 15 months.
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