Jerusalem : Disgraced former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert on Monday began serving a 19-month jail term for bribery and obstruction of justice in a major corruption case, becoming the first premier in the Jewish state’s history to be imprisoned.
70-year-old Olmert entered Ma’asiyahu Prison in Ramle on Monday morning, nearly two months after the apex court upheld his bribery conviction.
Earlier in the morning, hours ahead of his incarceration, he insisted that while he accepted the sentence, he was innocent of taking bribes.
The case, which relates to the period when Olmert served as the Mayor of Jerusalem between 1992 and 2003, came to public domain while he served as the Prime Minister, forcing him to resign from the post in 2009 and paving the way for the incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu.
