{{A Tel Aviv court on Tuesday sentenced Israeli ex-premier Ehud Olmert to six years in prison for accepting bribes linked to a major property development in Jerusalem, media reports said}}.<\/p>\n
Broadcasting live from the court, Israel\u2019s main radio stations said Judge David Rosen handed Olmert six years of jail time and a fine of a million shekels (Sh25mn) over his involvement in one of the country\u2019s worst-ever corruption scandals.<\/p>\n
The 68-year-old, who was convicted six weeks ago on two charges of taking bribes, is the first former prime minister of Israel to face jail time for corruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe held the most important and central position and ended up convicted of contemptible crimes,\u201d the judge said in passing the sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cA public official who accepts bribes is tantamount to a traitor,\u201d he said. READ: Olmert could face graft charges.<\/p>\n
Following a two-year trial, Olmert was convicted on March 31 of bribes to the tune of 560,000 shekels (now $160,000\/116,000 euros) with the judge also saying he had committed perjury.<\/p>\n
The trial, which included 16 defendants and took place over two years, was linked to the construction of Jerusalem\u2019s massive Holyland residential complex when Olmert served as the city\u2019s mayor.<\/p>\n
In 2010, Olmert was named the key suspect in the so-called Holyland affair on suspicion he received hundreds of thousands of shekels for helping developers get the construction project past various legal and planning obstacles.<\/p>\n
The towering construction project, which dominates the city\u2019s skyline, is seen as a major blot on the landscape and widely reviled as a symbol of high-level corruption.<\/p>\n
{{- \u2018Not a regular criminal\u2019 -}}<\/p>\n
Wearing a royal blue shirt and khaki chinos, Olmert looked tired and subdued as he entered the court room.<\/p>\n
Rosen described Olmert as \u201cvery smart\u201d and \u201cpersonable\u201d but said he and a fellow city official also convicted of receiving bribes had worked to \u201cline their own pockets\u201d were \u201cnot regular criminals\u201d.<\/p>\n
Olmert was fifth in line to be sentenced, with three earlier defendants convicted of giving bribes, receiving lower sentences than demanded by the prosecution.<\/p>\n
But the city\u2019s former engineer, who like Olmert accepted bribes, was handed seven years of jail time.<\/p>\n
In July 2012, a Jerusalem court found Olmert guilty of breach of trust but cleared him on two more serious charges related to the alleged receipt of cash-stuffed envelopes and multiple billing for trips abroad.<\/p>\n
He was fined $19,000 and given a suspended jail sentence for graft.<\/p>\n
The conviction related to favours that Olmert granted a former colleague while serving as trade and industry minister.<\/p>\n
The Haifa-born politician was mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003, after which he served as a cabinet minister, holding the trade and industry portfolio as well as several others.<\/p>\n
He became premier in 2006, leading the centre-right Kadima party into government, but resigned in September 2008 after police recommended that he be indicted in several graft cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{A Tel Aviv court on Tuesday sentenced Israeli ex-premier Ehud Olmert to six years in prison for accepting bribes linked to a major property development in Jerusalem, media reports said}}. Broadcasting live from the court, Israel\u2019s main radio stations said Judge David Rosen handed Olmert six years of jail time and a fine of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000052165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-14420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000052165,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14420.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14420.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14420.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14420.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14420.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14420.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000052165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14420"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=14420"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=14420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}