Israel's ex-PM Ehud Olmert released from prison
2 July 2017 4:31 PM GMT
Ehud Olmert, Israel's former prime minister, was released from prison on Sunday days after a parole board granted him early release from his 27-month corruption sentence, a Prison Service official said. Spokesman Assaf Librati said Olmert, 71, was whisked away by Israel's security service after his release and
driven home. He said that under the terms of his early release, Olmert for the next few months has to do volunteer work, must appear before police twice a month and cannot give interviews to the media or leave the country.
He added that President Reuven Rivlin could relieve him of the parole restrictions.
Olmert was convicted in 2014 in a wide-ranging case that accused him of accepting bribes to promote a real-estate project years 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. His imprisonment ended the last major Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts and ushered in the era of Benjamin Netanyahu in 2009.
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