Israeli prime minister convicted of bribery is released from prison

DISGRACED Ehud Olmert, the exisraeli prime minister, was released from prison yesterday after serving 16 months of a 27-month sentence for fraud and bribery.

Olmert, 71, was convicted in 2014 of accepting bribes to promote a real- estate project in Jerusalem, and of obstructing justice. He took the bribes while trade minister and mayor of Jerusalem, before he began a three-year stint as prime minister in 2006.

Before its decision to release him, the parole board said that he had undergone a rehabilitation process in prison, and that his behaviour had been “impeccable”. Avichai Mandelblit, the attorney general, and Shai Nitzan, the state prosecutor, did not oppose the release, despite Mr Nitzan previously saying he would block such a move.

A previous request for a pardon from Olmert to Reuven Rivlin, the president of Israel, had been rejected. He will now volunteer at two charities until May 2018, when he was originally scheduled to be released.

Olmert is currently under investigation for allegedly disclosing classified information. He is suspected of using his lawyer to smuggle sections of his autobiography from jail to a publishing house without having it cleared. Police raided the Yedioth Ahronoth publishing house on June 13 in search of the material. Olmert was the first Israeli prime minister to go to prison.

Moshe Katzav, president from 2000 to 2007, was convicted in 2010 of rape and sentenced to seven years in prison. He was released in 2016. Benjamin Netanyahu, the current prime minister, is a suspect in two police inquiries. ♦basel Ghattas, a former Arab-israeli politician, said he was entering prison with “pride” as he began a two-year sentence yesterday.

An Israeli court accepted a plea bargain in which Ghattas resigned from parliament and admitted to smuggling mobile phones to Palestinian prisoners.