Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was convicted Monday in the Holyland corruption case.
Tel Aviv District Court Judge David Rozen convicted Olmert, who was charged with accepting bribes when he was mayor of Jerusalem in exchange for helping the developers of the Holyland Park residential project in the city.
Hillel Cherney, who is the owner of the Holyland complex and the key of 13 suspects on trial in the bribery case, was convicted Monday of bribing Jerusalem officials.
Earlier this month, it emerged that Olmert's former bureau chief, Shula Zaken, who was also a defendant and whose testimony in the case was inconsistent, was negotiating with prosecutors to obtain a plea bargain in exchange for turning state's witness and providing more information.
On Sunday, the court said that it would postpone until the following day a decision on whether to accede to the prosecution's request to allow former Olmert's bureau chief Shula Zaken to testify again in the Holyland case implicating her former boss. On Monday, the court ruled that it will not postpone the case and announce the verdict.
The verdict comes only two years after the indictments were issued against 13 defendants in one of the largest corruption scandals ever exposed in Israel. Rozen heard the case at a very fast pace, holding hearings three to four times a week. The evidentiary stage ended in November, after 9,000 pages of transcripts, 800 exhibits by the prosecution and 500 by the defense.
Posted by Unknown on Monday, March 31, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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