JERUSALEM: Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday reduced former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s prison sentence for a sweeping bribery scandal from six years to 18 months, handing him a moral victory even as he prepares to become the first former Israeli head of government to be imprisoned.

In its ruling, the court overturned the main bribery charge against Olmert but upheld a lesser charge. The 70-year-old ex-premier was ordered to begin serving his sentence on Feb 15.

Olmert was convicted in March 2014 and sentenced to six years in a wide-ranging case that accused him of accepting bribes to promote a controversial real-estate project in Jerusalem. The charges pertained to a period when he was mayor of Jerusalem and the country’s trade minister, years before he became prime minister in 2006. Olmert has denied any wrongdoing and was allowed to stay out of prison until the verdict on his appeal was delivered.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2015