Former Israeli PM Olmert insists on innocence as jail term begins

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert released a video statement insisting on his innocence on Monday, before arriving at prison in a motorcade to begin a 19-month sentence for corruption. Olmert is the first former head of government in Israel to go to prison. "As prime minister I was charged with the highest responsibility of safeguarding Israel’s citizens. Today I am the one to be locked behind bars,“ he said in a video released to media before he pulled up at Maasiyahu prison in central Israel. He will wear a prison uniform, have two cellmates and spend his first day in jail busy with assessment sessions with a social worker, criminologist - to assess, officials say, whether he is suicidal.

At this time, it is important for me to say once more, as I did in court and outside it, that I completely deny the bribery charges I was accused of.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

Olmert, 70, was found guilty in 2014 of two bribery charges: accepting 500,000 shekels ($129,000) from developers of a Jerusalem real estate project widely regarded as one of the city’s worst eyesores and 60,000 shekels ($15,500) in a separate land deal. He was sentenced to six years in jail, but the term was cut by the Supreme Court in December to 18 months after it overturned his conviction on the first bribery charge. Last month, a lower court tagged a month on to that sentence for obstruction of justice.

Ehud Olmert