Former prime minister Ehud Olmert on Monday was sentenced by the Jerusalem District Court to 8 months of jail time on his conviction for fraud under aggravated circumstances in the Talansky retrial.
The court also fined Olmert $100,000.Olmert lawyers appealed the sentence and the court agreed to their request to hold off the sentence for 45 days for time to appeal.
The former prime minister's lawyer Eyal Rozovsky told the media at the courthouse that he respects the court's decision but there were difficulties and mistakes in it.
"We tried convincing the court of the justice of our case. Olmert isn't happy. We wanted no jail time," Rozovsky said.
Olmert's other lawyer Eli Zohar told the press after the sentencing that it was "very very hard day."
He complained about the case being sent back after Olmert was acquitted and said that there was tampering with the Shula Zaken recordings that led to the retrial.
State prosecutor Uri Korb told the press after the decision was given that the court ruled unambiguously that the defendant (Olmert) broke the law while he was a high level public servant.
"The court said that crimes like this could not lead to anything but jail and it said it took into account his contributions to the state but still gave him jail time," Korb said.
The defense and the prosecution were asked about the possibility of negotiating a plea bargain by wrapping up together Olmert's two jail sentences and his third outstanding obstruction of justice case.
The defense said it would consider the possibility of such a plea bargain but that it would not discuss it with the media while the state seemed less interested with the idea.
The court had convicted Olmert in March of illegally receiving, using and concealing at least $153,950 (out of an alleged $600,000) funds in envelopes from New York businessman Morris Talansky between 1993 and 2002, with the case itself dating back to 2008.
The jail sentence is Olmert’s second following a six year sentence he received in the Holyland real estate trial on a conviction for bribery.
While he has appealed that conviction and sentence, the Supreme Court did not sound sympathetic when it heard the appeal.
By Yonah Jeremy Bob
