Former Israeli PM to serve months in prison amid bribe conviction

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will serve 18 months in prison after the Supreme Court partially accepted his appeal against a district court decision on a six-year imprisonment over bribery charges on Tuesday.

An extended panel of five judges in the Jerusalem Supreme Court accepted several clauses of Olmert's appeal and rejected others, and decided to decrease his prison sentence from six years to one and half years in prison.

Ehud Olmert, who served as prime minister between 2006 and 2009, was sentenced to six years in prison in May 2014 by the Tel Aviv District Court magistrate for graft charges committed during the time he served as mayor of Jerusalem between 1993 and 2003.

The corruption affair involves the development of the Holyland residential complex in Jerusalem. Olmert had allegedly received around 560,000 shekels (around 144,000 U.S. dollars) in bribes from contractors in order to push the project forward. Ten other officials and contractors were also convicted in the affair.

He is the first former prime minister to be convicted of bribery and sentenced to prison...
   Xinhua - china.org.cn
30/12/15