Olmert claims innocence before jail term
Print Edition
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert released a video statement yesterday, insisting on his innocence before arriving at prison in a motorcade to begin a 19-month sentence for corruption.
Olmert is the first former head of government in Israel to go to prison. During his premiership from 2006 to 2009, he was internationally credited with working towards a peace accord with the Palestinians, until graft scandals forced him to step down.
“As prime minister I was charged with the highest responsibility of safeguarding Israel’s citizens. Today I am the one to be locked behind bars,” he said in a video released to media before he pulled up at Maasiyahu prison in central Israel in a motorcade protected by bodyguards assigned to former leaders. “At this time, it is important for me to say once more, as I did in court and outside it, that I completely deny the bribery charges I was accused of,” Olmert said in the video.
Olmert was found guilty in 2014 of two bribery charges: accepting 500,000 shekels (US$129,000) from developers of a Jerusalem real estate project widely regarded as one of the city’s worst eyesores and 60,000 shekels in a separate land deal.
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