Israel Tives Sormer PM Olmert early release
FIRST PREMIER Put IN JAIL SERVED TIME FOR BRIBERY
JERUSALEM— Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert left prison Sunday after winning early release from a parole board, capping an ignominious chapter of Israeli history that transformed the once-powerful leader into the first premier ever to be placed behind bars.
Olmert, who served 16 months for his role in a corruption scandal, appeared gaunt and pale as he walked out of the Maasiyahu prison in central Israel.
Olmert, 71, was serving a 27-month sentence when the national parole board decided last week to release him early for good behavior.
Just a few years ago, Olmert was hobnobbing with the world’s rich and famous and leading his country in an intense round of peace talks with the Palestinians.
But in 2008, he was forced to resign to fight off a burgeoning corruption case, leading to the election of the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the following year. Peace efforts have been all but frozen ever since.
Olmert was a longtime fixture in Israel’s hawkish right wing when he began taking a dramatically more conciliatory line toward the Palestinians more than a decade ago. He played a leading role in Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and joined then-prime Minister Ariel Sharon in breaking away from the hard-line Likud Party and forming a new centrist party called Kadima later that year.
Olmert became prime minister in January 2006 after Sharon suffered a debilitating stroke and led Kadima to victory in parliamentary elections, promising additional peace moves with the Palestinians.
Olmert presided over a turbulent three-year term.
A gifted orator known for his sharp tongue, Olmert broke a series of taboos while in office, warning that Israel could become like apartheid South Africa if it continued its occupation of the Palestinians and expressing readiness to relinquish parts of Jerusalem under a peace deal.
Olmert has said he made unprecedented concessions to the Palestinians and was close to reaching an agreement at the time of his resignation.
Olmert was convicted in 2014 in a wide-ranging case that saw him accused of accepting bribes to promote a real-estate project in Jerusalem and obstructing justice. The charges pertained to a period when he was mayor of Jerusalem and trade minister before he became premier in 2006.