Former Ramat Gat mayor Zvi Bar is released from prison early after serving nine months of a three-year prison sentence.
The parole board of the Israel Prison’s Authority ruled earlier today to immediately release Bar, 82, citing his poor health.
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, seen at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on December 11, 2016 (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.
Bar will now be required to report to police once every two weeks and attend a rehabilitation program until the end of those 15 months.
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Tuesday, November 7, 2017
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