BICOM

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was released from prison on parole on Sunday after serving 17 months of a 27 month sentence for corruption.

The Israeli Parole Board granted him early release last week, citing his performance in a “significant rehabilitation process” in prison in which his behaviour had been mostly “impeccable”.

Olmert was Prime Minister from 2006 –2009. His time in office included the second Lebanon War in 2006 and a comprehensive, but ultimately failed, peace process that included frequent meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Olmert was convicted for corruption and accepting bribes in connection to the building of the Holyland housing project when he was Mayor of Jerusalem.

As part of his release programme, he will attend regular psychological therapy sessions with a social worker and will also volunteer twice per week with two different charities.

One of his first stops yesterday after his release was to go to a shopping centre run by his former Military Secretary Maj. Gen. Avi Zamir. Hundreds of shoppers approached Olmert and wish him well.

Despite being in prison, Olmert has generated regular media stories in recent months. In June he was rushed to hospital with chest pains, fearing he had suffered a heart attack.  This was preceded by a raid on the offices of his publisher in connection with suspicions that Olmert had asked his lawyer to smuggle a chapter of his forthcoming memoirs out of prison before the material had been approved for publication by the Military Censor.

His friend and attorney Yehiel Gutman told Army Radio yesterday that the book will settle the score with the justice system: “His book contains 1,200 pages and deals with very long periods of time in his public life as well in his personal life. The most interesting things that he wrote are actually about the judicial system and about the era of his trials.”

Olmert is 71 and unlikely to make a political comeback.  His conviction carries the stain of “moral turpitude,” which under Israeli law precludes him from running for public office for seven years after his release.  Only full clemency by the President can remove this status.

Olmert’s lawyers yesterday appealed to the President’ office to remove the regular restrictions placed on those released on parole.