OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: A court in Israeli-occupied Jerusalem on Monday handed former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert a $19,000 fine and a suspended jail sentence for graft, meaning he will serve no jail time, court officials said.

The Jerusalem District Court sentenced the former premier to a one year jail sentence suspended for three years, and fined him 75,300 shekels ($19,200), court documents released to media said. Reading the 27-page ruling, Judge Mussiya Arad said Olmert was guilty of a “grave and absolute conflict of interest” and that the gravity of the case required “a practical response”, Israeli public radio reported.

On July 10, the court found Olmert guilty of breach of trust in a closely watched corruption case, but cleared him on two other charges, in a verdict he himself declared was just.

Prosecutor Eli Abarbanel told reporters that his office was considering an appeal against the July verdict.

“This affair is not over,” he said. “For two and a half months the prosecution has been studying the verdict... a team of lawyers has been working on this in the most intensive way and is close to reaching a conclusion.”—AFP