By Anees Barghouthy
JERUSALEM
An Israeli court on Monday sentenced former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to eight months in prison and another eight-month probation in the so-called 'Talansky case,' which was first opened in 2008.
Olmert, convicted of fraud earlier in the same case, was also fined 100,000 shekels (roughly $25,000). Olmert's lawyer Eyal Rozovsky said that he intended to petition the ruling.
The former premier was accused of having illegally received – and concealed – cash payments from American Jewish businessman Morris Talansky in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, during his tenure as Jerusalem mayor and trade minister. In return, Olmert allegedly facilitated Talansky's business interests.
The former premier was acquitted in the same case in July 2012, but new evidence based on recordings prompted a retrial.
Olmert has already been sentenced to six years jail time and a one million shekel fine (roughly $290,000) after being found guilty of two counts of bribery in a separate corruption case known as the "Holyland trial."
In that case, Olmert was found guilty of taking bribes linked to the construction of Jerusalem's massive Holyland residential complex when he was serving as mayor.
That ruling made him the first former Israeli premier to serve jail time since Israel's establishment in 1948.
Olmert, the former leader of the center-right Kadima party, served as mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003 before becoming prime minister in 2006.
In September 2008, he resigned his post after police called for his indictment on graft charges.
