Olmert files request for prison furlough in July

Imprisoned former prime minister Ehud Olmert reportedly filed a request for furlough in early July Tuesday, trying his luck for a third time.

The Israel Prison Service was evaluating Olmert’s request and has yet to respond, the Walla news website reported.

The ex-prime minister — who began serving his 18-month sentence for bribery and obstruction of justice in February — is set to soon complete the first third of his jail sentence, making him eligible for furlough.

Olmert’s previous request for furlough so he could attend the funeral of former Mossad chief Meir Dagan on March 20 was turned down, despite the close friendship between the two men. Prison authorities said Olmert had not yet met the necessary criteria for a furlough, Channel 2 reported at the time.

Earlier in March, Olmert filed a request to be allowed to attend the bar mitzvah celebration of his first grandson. The IPS denied that request too, which came only days after Olmert began serving his 18-month prison term.

Olmert was one of eight former officials and businessmen convicted in March 2014 in the Holyland real estate corruption case, which officials have characterized as the largest in Israel’s history.

The former prime minister and two-term mayor of Jerusalem was sentenced in 2014 to six years in prison over two separate charges of taking bribes in the early 2000s, when he served as mayor, including in connection with the construction of Jerusalem’s massive Holyland residential complex. In December 2015, the Supreme Court reduced his sentence to 18 months in prison after overturning one of the convictions of the Tel Aviv District Court

The prison service refitted a wing in Ma’asiyahu Prison in Ramle especially to house the former prime minister, keeping him in a separate complex shared only by carefully screened fellow convicts. The special arrangements are intended to keep not only Olmert himself safe, but also the trove of sensitive state secrets he carries with him.