President Rivlin Rejects Olmert’s Pardon Request

Jerusalem, 27 March, 2017 (TPS) -- President Reuven (Ruby) Rivlin rejected on Monday a request to pardon former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.  

Olmert has served 13 months of a 27 month prison sentence for corruption and breach of trust.

Rivlin said that Olmert’s fall from grace and his years of service to Israel’s well being and security had already been considered by the Court.

“The President’s authority to pardon [to a convict] does not act as a court’s appeal and thus there is no justification to grant a pardon request as a way to be awarded an immediate release from prison,” said Rivlin.

Olmert, who served as mayor of Jerusalem during the 1990s before entering national politics, replaced Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as acting prime minister when the latter suffered a debilitating stroke in January, 2006, and was elected prime minister in his own right later that year. He served in that role until 2009 when he was charged with fraud, bribery, tax evasion, and breach of public trust for several corruption cases. He was then convicted of breach of trust in 2012 and of bribery and obstruction of justice in May, 2014. He is the first prime minister to serve a prison term.

Rivlin added that Olmert is scheduled to appear before the parole board in July after having served two-thirds of his sentence.