Supreme Court hears Holyland appeal from Olmert, others

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert and seven other people began their Supreme Court appeals against convictions in the Holyland affair Monday, considered one of Israel’s biggest corruption scandals.

Olmert and other officials and businessmen were convicted earlier this year on a slew of graft charges surrounding the development of a large Jerusalem residential project and sentenced to varying prison terms.

Olmert, the first Israeli prime minister to be sentenced to jail, has been allowed to delay starting his six-year prison term until after the appeals process.

At the heart of the appeals is a claim that the convictions were based on false testimony from state witness Shmuel Dachner, who has since died.

The eight hope to have their convictions revoked or at least secure a reduction in jail sentences, some of several years long.

The court was scheduled to hear only half of the appeals, with the remainder to be presented on Wednesday. State prosecutors are to respond to the appeals on Thursday.

The seven individuals challenging the convictions alongside Olmert are developer Hillel Charney, businessman Avigdor Kelner, developer Meir Rabin, former Jerusalem city engineer Uri Shitrit, former deputy Jerusalem mayor Eliezer Simhayoff, businessman Danny Dankner, and former Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski.

Dankner, a former chairman of the Hapoalim bank, one of Israel’s largest, is currently serving a year in prison on a separate fraud conviction and was forced to appear at the courthouse in his inmate uniform.

Cherney and Kelner were the first to present their appeals and it was not clear if Olmert would have his say later in the day or wait until Wednesday.

Olmert was sentenced on May 13, 2014, 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.

In September, the Supreme Court ruled that Olmert and the seven others will remain free men until the end of their appeals process.

The former prime minister was initially slated to report to prison on September 1. However, Supreme Court President Justice Asher Grunis delayed his sentence “until a ruling is made concerning the requests for postponement.”

Olmert 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 graft affairs, charges of which he was acquitted in 2012.

The Supreme Court ordered the retrial in August, saying it would allow new testimony from Olmert’s former assistant, Shula Zaken, including recordings of conversations showing possible witness tampering between Olmert and Zaken, who provided the information last spring as part of a plea bargain. Zaken has already 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 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.