Olmert defense refusing to return state evidence it received in error

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert’s defense team is refusing to return state evidence mistakenly delivered to it and is asking a Jerusalem district court to uphold its position.

Olmert’s lawyers contended Friday that there is no basis for the prosecution to demand the return of a CD containing e-mails from former Olmert assistant Shula Zaken, who turned state witness earlier this year, because she waved attorney-client privilege.

This is the second time state prosecutors have mistakenly sent Olmert’s team evidence and requested its return, according to the defense.

Olmert was sentenced in May 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.

Olmert is appealing the verdict and 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, cases in which he was acquitted in 2012.

The Supreme Court ordered the retrial in August, saying it would allow new testimony from Zaken, including recordings of conversations between Olmert and Zaken, who provided the information last spring as part of a plea bargain. Zaken has 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.