Tag: ehud olmert
Ex-Israeli Prime Minister Olmert Sentenced To Six Years In Prison

Ex-Israeli Prime Minister Olmert Sentenced To Six Years In Prison

By Batsheva Sobelman, Los Angeles Times

JERUSALEM — One of Israel’s highest profile court cases ended Tuesday with a scathing critique of public corruption, harsh jail sentences and a former prime minister sent to prison, effectively ending Ehud Olmert’s decades-long political career.

Olmert was found guilty in late March of two counts of accepting bribes as part of the massive real-estate scam known as the “Holyland affair.”

The case takes its name from the controversial Jerusalem development, a towering chain of residential buildings approved and built amid widespread objection, irregularities and corruption.

The project began during Olmert’s tenure as mayor of Jerusalem in the 1990s. He was elected prime minister in 2006 and announced his resignation in 2008 amid separate corruption allegations, but remained in place until elections were held 2009.

On Tuesday, Olmert was sentenced to six years in prison and a $290,000 fine. Another six people, among them Jerusalem’s former city engineer, a sitting city councilman and a business entrepreneur, were sentenced to jail terms between three and eight years, as well as hefty fines.

Several more people convicted of taking or offering bribes, including Uri Lupoliansky who succeeded Olmert as mayor, will be sentenced in coming days.

Judge David Rozen accompanied the harsh sentences with equally harsh words. “A public official accepting bribes is akin to a traitor,” he wrote.

Prosecutor Liat Ben-Ari expressed hope that the case would become “a significant milestone in our ongoing battle against public corruption.”

Speaking to throngs of reporters crowding the Tel-Aviv courthouse, Ben-Ari said “no one is above the law” and that any and all who take or give bribes must face the same justice.

Olmert himself did not comment immediately after the sentencing. He maintained his innocence after the conviction six weeks ago.

Olmert’s spokesman, Amir Dan, said the sentence is based on “a mistaken verdict, a tower of cards built on speculation and assumption.” He criticized the the court for “harshly punishing a man who never took bribes and who contributed a great deal to the country,” and said Olmert would appeal the verdict and the prison sentence.

Eli Zohar, one of several attorneys defending the former prime minister, called the sentence “unprecedented and disproportionate,” and expressed hope an appeal would overturn both conviction and sentence.

On a personal level, Zohar said, “my heart goes out to him, his family and the nation.”

Eliad Shraga, an attorney and longtime crusader against corruption, told Israeli television that the Holyland case marks a turning point in fighting corruption, which he called “a strategic existential threat to Israel.”

“It is not a simple day when a former prime minister is sentenced,” Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said. She expressed her confidence in Israel’s courts and law enforcement and said “this is how the public should feel too.”

Olmert and the others are set to report to jail on Sept. 1.

Acroll via Flickr

Former Israeli Prime Minister Olmert Convicted In Corruption Trial

Former Israeli Prime Minister Olmert Convicted In Corruption Trial

By Batsheva Sobelman, Los Angeles Times

JERUSALEM — Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was convicted Monday of accepting bribes in a case called one of the nation’s largest corruption scandals, ending an intense two-year trial and most likely his political career.

Tel Aviv District Court convicted Olmert and nine other defendants — including real-estate developers, a former mayor, a former city engineer, a former bank chairman and former councilmen and aides — of accepting or taking bribes. Three other people were acquitted.

Olmert was acquitted of two counts of bribery but convicted of two others, one involving approximately $140,000 in a series of post-dated checks given to his financially distressed brother, Yossi Olmert, by a third person who turned state witness and later died during the trial.

Ehud Olmert is the first prime minister to be convicted and quite probably face jail time, although he joins the growing list of former Israeli politicians convicted of crimes that include financial corruption and rape.

The Holyland scandal, named after the towering real-estate project dominating one of Jerusalem’s hilltops, broke in 2010 with the arrests of senior businessmen and Jerusalem city officials suspected of pushing through the widely disputed project through bribery, and financial and bureaucratic misconduct.

The investigation revealed an intricate web of widespread corruption and a massive mechanism of bribes, money laundering and mutual favors exchanged between entrepreneurs, city hall and interested parties. The scandal involved cutting corners and bending zoning laws to secure permits and perks for the project, while quashing objections to the controversial development.

Olmert, who was mayor of Jerusalem between 1993 and 2003 while the project was under way, and his fellow defendants were indicted in August 2010. Uri Lupoliansky, who succeeded Olmert as mayor, was also indicted.

After the verdict Monday, prosecutor Yonatan Tadmor told the media the “court has spoken in a loud, clear voice: no more corruption in government.”

From now on, “every giver or taker of bribes must know their actions will come to light,” said the prosecutor, who vowed authorities would be relentless in combating corruption.

Attorney Roi Blecher, one of several lawyers representing Olmert, said the defense would study the 700-page ruling carefully and consider its next moves. Petitions to appeal the verdict must be submitted within 45 days. “This is not a simple day for Mr. Olmert,” Blecher said.

Meanwhile, the court will reconvene at the end of April to discuss sentencing. Olmert’s crimes are punishable by up to seven years in jail, although even considerably lighter sentencing would be enough to bar him from returning to the political system for many years, effectively ending the 68-year-old politician’s career.

Olmert became prime minister in 2006. His term was marked by military campaigns such as the 2006 war against Hezbollah and Israel’s month-long military campaign in Gaza in 2009 but also peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

Olmert’s term was brought to an early end in 2009 over separate corruption charges alleging he had received cash-stuffed envelopes from a U.S. businessman. He was cleared of that case in 2012.

In a Facebook post, the opposition Labor Party’s chairman Isaac Herzog welcomed the verdict and hailed it as a “mark of honor” for law enforcement and the battle against governmental corruption in Israel, while feeling “personally sorry” for Olmert.

Many objected to the Holyland project, a massive chain of towers strung together on a hilltop, claiming it contravened Jerusalem’s entire aesthetic, environmental and urban rationale.
The buildings have long since grown on some. But Herzog wrote that the towers would remain a “monument to greed.”

Photo: Templar1307 via Flickr