BICOM

Widespread Israeli media reports this morning claim there is new evidence which could significantly impact the trial of former-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in what is known as the ‘Holyland’ case.

Olmert is accused of accepting bribes to smooth over the construction of the large ‘Holyland’ real estate project during his time as Mayor of Jerusalem. The trial recently ended and a verdict is expected in a Tel Aviv court on Monday. However, Olmert’s former trusted aide Shula Zaken, herself a defendant, has apparently provided police with tape recordings of Olmert urging her not to accept a plea bargain to testify against him, an act which would likely constitute obstruction of justice. If reports of Zaken’s new evidence are true, it could lead to a delay in the verdict or a new charge against Olmert altogether.

Olmert resigned as Prime Minister in 2008 in order to fight a plethora of charges against him. In 2012, he was acquitted of having illegally accepted money from an American businessman, in a case known as the Talansky Affair and was also acquitted over the Rishon Tours affair, in which he was accused of maintaining an illegal travel slush fund. He was handed just a relatively light fine and one-year suspended prison sentence for breach of trust during his time as Minister of Trade and Industry and was found not guilty of the more serious charges of fraud and breach of trust.

However, the ‘Holyland’ case has hung over Olmert and is considered the final barrier preventing an apparent planned return to politics. In response to the reports over Zaken’s new evidence, a statement on behalf of Olmert criticised the “continued slanderous public relations efforts and the line of unending leaks from the police and the prosecution” and accused them of trying to “unduly influence the legal process on the eve of the verdict set for Monday” with such rumours.