Jerusalem (dpa) – Ehud Olmert became the first former prime minister in Israeli history to go behind bars, beginning a 19-month jail sentence on Monday for bribe-taking and obstruction of justice.
The 70-year-old, who served as premier from 2006 to 2009, entered the Maasiyahu Prison, south-east of Tel Aviv, where authorities have arranged to accommodate his special security needs due to his knowledge of state secrets.
Olmert is to dwell in bloc 10, which Israeli media have dubbed the prison’s “VIP wing.” Other high-ranking officials implicated in the real estate scandal for which he was convicted will also serve in the recently renovated wing.
Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert
“Life is offering me today no simple test. I go toward it with great sadness,” he said in a video message from his living room, shortly before departing in a convoy from Jerusalem.
He admitted to having “made mistakes,” but insisted these were “not criminal,” and denied having taken bribes.
“For some of them I pay today a heavy price, perhaps too heavy,” he said.
Olmert has a wife, five children and 11 grandchildren.
His crimes date back to when he served as mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003 and as trade and industry minister immediately afterwards, a period when the court said he developed a “give-and-take relationship” with the developer of the city’s Holyland luxury housing project.
The court said it was proven beyond a reasonable doubt that his assistant, Shula Zaken, accepted money from the developer on behalf of Olmert in 2004.
Many other high-ranking officials have also been implicated in the affair.
A six-year prison sentence handed to Olmert by a lower court was reduced to 18 months by the Supreme Court, as it rejected another count of bribe-taking related to Olmert’s time as mayor.
Another court last week gave Olmert an extra month of jail time for two counts of obstruction of justice, to which the former premier admitted to under a plea bargain.
The two counts referred to two attempts by Olmert to convince his former secretary Zaken not to testify and not to sign a plea bargain in another major corruption case.
Zaken, at first loyal to him, initially agreed, but later turned into a state witness and produced tape recordings, which revealed Olmert’s attempts to persuade her not to go along with the prosecutors.
Surpeme court rulings on appeals against two other affairs implicating Olmert are still pending.
