JERUSALEM: Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert was sentenced to eight months in prison for corruption on Monday, the latest legal blow in a spectacular fall from grace.

Lawyers for Olmert, who was premier from 2006 to 2009, crowning a political career spanning decades, immediately announced they would appeal.

The 69-year-old already faces a six-year prison sentence handed down in a separate bribery case which is the subject of an appeal to the supreme court.

He remains at liberty until the appeals have been heard, but will have to serve the two jail terms consecutively if they are upheld.

The Jerusalem district court convicted Olmert of fraud and corruption in March following a retrial over allegations that he had received envelopes of cash from a US businessman while trade and industry minister in the early 2000s.

Passing sentence, the three-judge bench said: “The conduct of Ehud Olmert merits a custodial sentence.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2015

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