TEL AVIV: A Tel Aviv court yesterday found former premier Ehud Olmert guilty of bribery linked to a Jerusalem property development, in one of the worst corruption scandals in Israeli history.
At a lengthy hearing in Tel Aviv District Court presided over by Judge David Rosen, Olmert was convicted on two counts of bribery, making him the first former premier to be convicted of the offence.
The trial, which included 16 defendants and took place over two years, was linked to the construction of the massive Holyland residential complex when Olmert served as the city’s mayor.
In 2010, Olmert was named the key suspect in the so-called Holyland affair on suspicion that he received hundreds of thousands of shekels for helping developers get the construction project past various legal and planning obstacles.
The construction project, which dominates the city’s skyline, is seen as a major blot on the landscape and widely reviled as a symbol of high-level corruption.
“We’re talking about corrupt and filthy practices,” Judge Rosen said in the 700-page verdict which branded Olmert as a liar.
Olmert reportedly sat expressionless throughout the verdict as the judge spoke at length of a “corrupt political system which has decayed over the years... and in which hundreds of thousands of shekels were transferred to elected officials”.
According to the verdict, Olmert personally received bribes to the tune of 560,000 shekels ($160,000 at the current exchange rate), most of which was given to his brother Yossi by a middleman who later turned state witness.
“The state’s witness bought (Olmert’s) ‘services’ at a price of 500,000 shekels, which was transferred to him through his brother,” it said of the main sum, saying the transfer involved eight post-dated cheques of between 50,000 and 80,000 shekels.
Rosen also said the 68-year-old had lied to the court in a bid to “blacken the name” of the state’s witness in a verdict which found 13 of the 16 defendants guilty.
Olmert’s spokesman Jacob Galanti vowed to appeal.
There has been no date set for the sentencing.
AFP
