Israel court extends former prime minister's prison sentence

An Israeli court has sentenced former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to one month's community service, for pressuring a confidant not to testify in multiple legal cases against him, which he will serve in addition to an earlier 18-month prison sentence for corruption.

The Jerusalem court rejected on Wednesday a plea bargain Olmert signed in January in which he pleaded guilty to charges of obstruction of justice in an attempt to avoid an additional sentence.

 

Olmert is set to report to prison Monday.  He will be the first Israeli leader to go to prison.

Olmert was convicted in March 2014 in a wide-ranging case that accused him of accepting bribes to promote a controversial real-estate project, and sentenced to six years. In December Israel's Supreme Court reduced his sentence.