Olmert sharing cell with 2 fellow Holyland convicts
Ex-PM joins former Jerusalem city engineer and ex-Bank Hapoalim bank chief in Ma’asiyahu’s cell block 10
Former prime minister Ehud Olmert is set to share a cell with two people convicted together with him in a real estate scandal, as he began a 19-month sentence for bribery and obstruction of justice at Ramle’s Ma’asiyahu Prison, Channel 2 News reported Tuesday.
Former Jerusalem City Council engineer Uri Shitrit is serving a seven-year sentence for accepting bribes, money laundering and falsifying records. Former Bank Hapoalim chairman Dani Dankner is serving two years for his part in brokering bribes in the so-called Holyland case, which revolved around corruption in a high-rise real estate project of the same name in Jerusalem. Olmert was convicted of receiving bribes, along with his former bureau chief Shula Zaken.
Ten out of 13 defendants were convicted in the Holyland affair, among them former Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky.
In December, the Supreme Court drastically reduced Lupolianski’s sentence from six years behind bars to six months, commuted into community service. In his case, the bribes did not go to him directly, but to the Yad Sarah charity he leads. The former Jerusalem mayor also suffers from ill health.
Olmert, now known as prisoner 9032478, underwent a series of checks after entering Ma’asiyahu Prison on Monday, and talked with the prison’s director, social welfare officer and an intelligence officer, Channel 2 reported, adding that a TV camera has been installed in his cell and a security guard posted outside.
The special wing, which recently underwent a NIS 4 million upgrade, is reserved for high-profile prisoners and houses other figures convicted in the Holyland affair, among them former deputy Jerusalem mayor, businessman and developer Meir Rabin.
Among those expected to join them in the near future are former judge Dan Cohen and former top anti-corruption police chief Eran Malka, both sentenced for crimes unconnected to Holyland.
Cohen was sentenced in September 2013 to six years in jail and ordered to pay a fine of NIS 10 million (some $2.8 million), ending a several-year saga that saw him flee to Peru before being returned to Israel in March of that year.
Cohen, who also served as a director of the Israel Electric Corporation, was indicted in absentia for fraud, breach of trust and obstruction of justice in 2009. According to the indictment, Cohen took millions of shekels in bribes from multinational firms such as Siemens while directing the IEC.
Last September, Malka, once a top member of the elite Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit, was sentenced to eight years behind bars for leaking sensitive information in exchange for cash in a corruption scandal that rocked Israel’s law enforcement establishment.
The Prisons Service has said special security measures are needed for high profile figures like Olmert.
Wing 10, equipped to accommodate 18 prisoners, has six cells, each with three beds, a shower and toilet, a closet, a table and chairs, and a TV.
The wing has a study classroom, a club, a visitors’ room, two rooms for meetings with lawyers, a social worker’s office, and an office for the wing’s prison commander. Public phone boxes are available in the corridor.
As Olmert settled into his new home, high-profile celebrity rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto reported to another jail nearby.
Pinto, convicted of bribing a police officer, was due to begin his one-year jail term Tuesday in the medical center of Ramle’s Nitzan Prison, because of health issues.