OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: A parole committee has decided to grant early release to Israeli ex-prime minister Ehud Olmert, who is serving a 27-month prison sentence for corruption, his lawyer said on Thursday.
“The committee accepted all our arguments,” Olmert’s lawyer Shani Illouz told public radio. “As of now, Olmert will be released on Sunday,” she said, noting the justice ministry could still appeal the decision.
The 71-year-old Olmert, who was premier between 2006 and 2009, was convicted of graft and entered prison in February 2016.
His Sunday release would be after he completed two-thirds of his sentence.
Olmert is Israel’s first former premier to serve jail time.
He resigned as prime minister in September 2008 after police recommended he be indicted for graft, but remained in office until March 2009, when Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in to the post, which he has held ever since.
Olmert won international acclaim for relaunching peace efforts with the Palestinians at the Annapolis conference in the United States in 2007, but they failed to bear fruit and the corruption charges against him have come to define his legacy.
