ISRAELI COURT LETS OLMERT OFF WITH A LIGHT SENTENCE

This was actually predictable, but the court trying him for corruption's just given him a suspended sentence and a very small fine:

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert can return to politics before seven years despite his conviction for breach of trust, the Jerusalem District Court ruled Monday.

The court slapped a fine of less than $18,000 on him and gave him one-year suspended jail sentence but did not accept the prosecutor’s request that Olmert serve six months in community service.

The first Israeli Prime Minister ever to be convicted for a crime, he was convicted two months ago on a charge of breach of trust while he served as Industry, Trade and Labor Minister. He still faces charges of bribery in the Holyland apartment project, re-zoned for construction when he was mayor of Jerusalem.

Who cares? They've still let him off easy and given reason to wonder if they'll do the same with the bribery case. The nationalist movement's already panned the ruling, calling it toothless.

The prosecution is going to appeal the sentence:

The Prosecution has decided to appeal to the Supreme Court over the Jerusalem District Court's decision to acquit former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on charges of accepting at least $150,000 in cash from American businessman Moshe Talansky, Channel 2 News reported on Monday.

The decision was made hours after the Court imposed a light sentence on Olmert who was convicted of breach of trust: a fine of less than $18,000 and a one-year suspended jail sentence. The Court did not accept the prosecutor’s request that Olmert serve six months in community service.

According to Channel 2, after many discussions the Prosecution decided it would appeal the Court's decision on the Talansky affair. The prosecution will only appeal the Court’s legal interpretation of the facts and findings of the trial, the report said.

Meanwhile, Prosecution officials are still grappling with the question of whether to also appeal Olmert’s not guilty verdict on charges of “double billing” from a travel agency. In any case, Prosecution officials said that if the Supreme Court overturns the District Court’s ruling, they will also ask that a harsher sentence be imposed on Olmert.

It's clear the judges in the court were predisposed to ruling in Olmert's favor if they were only willing to give him a minor sentence and consider his crimes acceptable based on his being a leftist. If he were still a rightist, more so than he ostensibly used to be, chances are this would be a very different story.