Israel’s top court yesterday slashed former prime minister Ehud Olmert’s prison sentence to 18 months from six years after overturning the main count in his bribery conviction last year.
Olmert, 70, is to begin serving his term on Feb. 15, according to live reports from the Jerusalem courtroom, making him the first former head of government in Israel to go to prison.
The charges relate to his 1992-2003 term as Jerusalem’s mayor and real-estate deals in the city.
Photo: EPA
The conviction ended speculation that Olmert — a centrist credited with working toward a peace settlement with the Palestinians until the graft scandal forced him to step down — might return to political life.
The Kadima party he formerly headed is no longer in parliament.
Olmert, prime minister from 2006 to 2009, has denied any wrongdoing in a major property deal that led to the construction of the hilltop Holyland apartment towers, a hulking stone complex widely seen as one of Jerusalem’s worst eyesores.
“A large weight has been lifted from my heart with the Supreme Court deciding to acquit me of the main charge in the Holyland affair,” Olmert told reporters after the ruling.
“No bribe was ever offered to me and I never accepted one,” said Olmert, who looked visibly relieved. “But I respect the verdict of the Supreme Court justices.”
Tel Aviv District Court found Olmert guilty in March last year of two bribery charges, finding that he accepted 500,000 shekels (US$128,720) from developers of the Holyland project and 60,000 shekels in a separate real-estate deal.
The six-year sentence handed down by the lower court had been put on hold until the culmination of the appeal.
Issuing its ruling, a five-member Supreme Court panel said it had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt that Olmert had solicited the 500,000 shekels from a real-estate developer to help his brother get out of debt. It upheld his conviction on accepting the smaller amount.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS