Ehud Olmert Gets Six Months Community Service

Ehud Olmert Image by getty images

By JTA September 6, 2012

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was sentenced to six months of community service for a breach of trust conviction.

Ehud Olmert Image by getty images

Olmert was sentenced Wednesday in Jerusalem District Court. He could have faced up to three years in jail.

The state prosecutors office also dropped a request that the court find that Olmert ‘s conviction amounted to moral turpitude, which would have prevented the 67-year-old from entering politics for seven years.

Olmert had agreed to forgo the perks awarded to a former head of state, including a secretary, an office and a car, in exchange for the finding.

The Jerusalem District Court in July acquitted Olmert on charges of fraud, breach of trust, tax evasion and falsifying corporate records in what became known as the Talansky and Rishon Tours affairs. He was found guilty on a lesser charge of breach of trust in the Investment Center case.

Olmert is the first former Israeli prime minister ever to stand trial. He officially resigned as prime minister in September 2008 after police investigators recommended that he be indicted.

Following the verdicts, Olmert said he has no plans to reenter politics.

Olmert will be back in the courtroom, however. In January, he was indicted on bribery charges in one of Israel’s largest corruption scandals. Olmert is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes during the construction of the Holyland apartment project in Jerusalem when he was mayor of the city and then trade minister.

Seventeen others have been indicted in the case, including his bureau chief, Shula Zaken, and Olmert’s successor as Jerusalem mayor, Uri Lupolianski.

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