BICOM

The state has asked for the verdict in the ‘Holyland’ case against Israel’s former-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to be delayed after a plea bargain was agreed with Olmert’s former close aide, Shula Zaken, who is thought to possess incriminating evidence against him.

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 was expected on Monday. However, Zaken, herself a defendant, is apparently in possession of tape recordings in which Olmert is revealed to obstruct justice over the case. Zaken yesterday accepted a plea bargain under which she will now act as a state witness against Olmert and serve no more than eleven months in prison for her role in the affair. Zaken’s lawyer said she would “testify to the police and to any court as required.” Olmert’s lawyers described the plea bargain as “nothing less than obstruction of justice in the ‘Holyland’ case.”

The prosecution yesterday appealed to the Tel Aviv District Court to delay Monday’s verdict and called for permission for Zaken to give further testimony and for Olmert to be summoned for questioning under caution. Judge David Rosen gave both sides until Sunday afternoon to present their arguments over the request.

Olmert led Israel during the 2006 Second Lebanon War and in 2007 held advanced peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. However, he 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. However, the ‘Holyland’ case has hung over Olmert and is considered the final barrier preventing an apparent planned return to politics.