Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been ordered
to serve 18 months in jail for bribery. Olmert had been sentenced to six years
by a lower court in 2014, but this has now been reduced by the Supreme Court. The 70-year-old was convicted over a property deal that took
place while he served as mayor of Jerusalem, prior to becoming prime minister
in 2006.
Olmert, who stepped down in 2009, will become the first
former Israeli head of government to go to prison. He is due to begin his
sentence on 15 February.
The Supreme Court acquitted Olmert of receiving a
500,000-shekel ($130,000; £86,000) bribe from the developers of Holyland, a
controversial block of flats in Jerusalem, after he appealed against the March
2014 conviction.
A separate conviction of illicitly taking a 60,000-shekel
payment for another project was upheld.
Several other government officials and businesspeople were
convicted alongside Olmert in 2014.
