Ex-Israel PM Olmert gets 18 months in prison for corruption

JERUSALEM

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will become the first Israeli premier to be imprisoned, Israel’s top court ruled Tuesday.

Israeli online newspaper Times of Israel reported that Olmert’s sentence was cut from six years to 18 months after the Supreme Court partially accepted an appeal.

The court overturned a conviction for a 500,000 NIS bribe ($130,000) paid to his brother, but upheld a conviction for another 60,000 NIS payment.

Olmert told reporters after the conviction that “a heavy weight had been lifted” with the end of the case, but insisted that he is innocent.

Alongside Olmert, another eight businessmen and officials were found guilty in 2014 of directly or indirectly receiving payments in exchange for supporting the approval of a Jerusalem real estate site.

The charges dated back to Olmert’s time as Jerusalem mayor between 1993 and 2003.

He was Israeli prime minister from 2006 until 2009, when he was forced to step down because of the corruption investigation.