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Israel's Olmert escapes with light sentence in graft case
Source: Agencies |
September 25, 2012, Tuesday
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A Jerusalem court yesterday ordered former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to pay a fine and serve a one-year suspended sentence for his role in a corruption case that forced him from office, a relatively light punishment that could clear the way for a political comeback.
Olmert, who had faced the possibility of jail time or community service, was ordered only to pay an US$18,000 fine. By avoiding those stiffer penalties, the former leader is now eligible to run for parliament, though he remains barred from serving in a Cabinet post while he faces another corruption trial.
Olmert, 66, has not said whether he wants to seek office again, but confidants say he is certainly considering it.
"I sense that many today among us today need to see Olmert come back," Ronnie Bar-On, a political ally of the former premier, told Israel's Channel 2 TV. "It is now very clear to everyone that Prime Minister Olmert was removed from office against his will and unjustifiably so."
In the coming months, Olmert will remain preoccupied with a separate trial for his alleged role in a Jerusalem real estate bribery case. Still, yesterday's sentencing was a clear victory for the former premier.
"I walk out of here with my head held high," he said.
Olmert was forced out of office nearly four years ago under the cloud of scandal, accused of accepting cash-stuffed envelopes from an American political supporter and allegedly double billing supporters for overseas trips.
But in July, the court cleared him of those allegations, convicting him only on the charge of breach of trust for helping allocate government contracts to a friend's associates.
In its decision yesterday, the court harshly scolded Olmert for his transgressions. "It was a very clear conflict of interest," the judge said. "It was a breach of trust, and we must relate to it in the harshest of terms."
Olmert, who had faced the possibility of jail time or community service, was ordered only to pay an US$18,000 fine. By avoiding those stiffer penalties, the former leader is now eligible to run for parliament, though he remains barred from serving in a Cabinet post while he faces another corruption trial.
Olmert, 66, has not said whether he wants to seek office again, but confidants say he is certainly considering it.
"I sense that many today among us today need to see Olmert come back," Ronnie Bar-On, a political ally of the former premier, told Israel's Channel 2 TV. "It is now very clear to everyone that Prime Minister Olmert was removed from office against his will and unjustifiably so."
In the coming months, Olmert will remain preoccupied with a separate trial for his alleged role in a Jerusalem real estate bribery case. Still, yesterday's sentencing was a clear victory for the former premier.
"I walk out of here with my head held high," he said.
Olmert was forced out of office nearly four years ago under the cloud of scandal, accused of accepting cash-stuffed envelopes from an American political supporter and allegedly double billing supporters for overseas trips.
But in July, the court cleared him of those allegations, convicting him only on the charge of breach of trust for helping allocate government contracts to a friend's associates.
In its decision yesterday, the court harshly scolded Olmert for his transgressions. "It was a very clear conflict of interest," the judge said. "It was a breach of trust, and we must relate to it in the harshest of terms."
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