JERUSALEM — Israel’s former prime minister, Ehud Olmert, appeared in a Jerusalem courtroom on Friday for a hearing that marks the first time any current or past Israeli head of government has stood trial.
The opening of court proceedings is the latest chapter in a legal saga that weakened Olmert’s leadership, undermined public confidence in government and eventually drove him from office.
The 63-year-old Olmert left politics when his rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, became prime minister last March, and has largely been out of the public eye since then.
Entering the court, Olmert told reporters that he had been subjected to an “ordeal of slanders and investigations.”
“I come here as a man innocent of any crime, and I believe I will leave here as a man innocent of any crime,” Olmert told reporters at the court.
Olmert faces charges of illegally accepting funds from an American supporter and double-billing Jewish groups for trips abroad, among others.
The incidents in question date from his time as Jerusalem mayor and later as a Cabinet minister, but emerged after he was elected prime minister in 2006. Olmert eventually stepped down because of the allegations, triggering elections that led to the formation of the Netanyahu government currently in power.
The formal charges include fraud and breach of trust. Israel’s Justice Ministry has not said what penalties Olmert could face, but the fraud charge alone could carry a prison term of up to five years.
The testimony of the American supporter, businessman Morris Talansky, who said he had given Olmert hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of it in envelopes stuffed with bills, helped galvanize public opinion, and in late 2008 Olmert announced he would step down.
Olmert did not testify at Friday’s brief hearing.
Olmert’s legal woes were the most prominent of a series of high-profile cases during his term in office and helped sour an already cynical public toward the nation’s leadership.
His former finance minister was sentenced in June to five years for embezzlement, and another member of Olmert’s Cabinet was sentenced to four years for taking bribes. Israel’s former ceremonial president, Moshe Katsav, is being tried on rape and sexual harassment charges, while a longtime Olmert aide has been charged with illegal wiretapping, fraud and breach of trust.
Olmert’s time in office was also marked by an inconclusive war in Lebanon in 2006 and an offensive in Gaza early this year aimed at halting years of Palestinian rocket fire. The Gaza war, which has succeeded in bringing about a rare period of quiet on the Israel-Gaza border, has also drawn charges that Israel used disproportionate force and did not do enough to avoid civilian casualties.
While prime minister, Olmert also held peace talks with the Palestinians and indirect talks with Syria.
Since leaving office, Olmert has said he offered the Palestinians a deal that would have seen Israel cede about 93.5 per cent of the West Bank, along with Israeli territory to make up for the 6.5 per cent of the West Bank land that Israel would retain. He also proposed international administration of east Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy sites.
The Palestinians sought more West Bank land and demanded Palestinian sovereignty over a disputed hilltop compound that is home to Islam’s third-holiest site, according to officials familiar with the talks.
Peace talks have been frozen since Olmert left office.
