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| Israel’s Olmert denies wrongdoing as he heads to prison | Israel’s Olmert denies wrongdoing as he heads to prison |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| JERUSALEM — Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made a last-minute plea to salvage his legacy on Monday, appealing to Israelis to remember his peace-making attempts as leader and denying any wrongdoing in the bribery charges against him just hours before he headed to prison. | |
| Olmert, 70, is set to report to Israel’s Maasiyahu prison later Monday to begin a 19-month prison sentence for bribery and obstruction of justice. He will become the first Israeli leader to be imprisoned. | |
| In a three and a half minute video released by his office and filmed at his residence a day earlier, a weary-looking Olmert said it was a “painful and strange” time for him and his family. He said he was paying a “heavy” price, but added that he accepted the sentence because “no man is above the law.” | |
| “At this hour it is important for me to say again ... I reject outright all the corruption allegations against me,” Olmert said in the footage. He said that in hindsight, the Israeli public might view the charges against him and the seven-year legal saga that enveloped him in a “balanced and critical way.” | |
| “I hope that then many will recognize that during my term as prime minister honest and promising attempts were made to create an opening for hope and a better future of peace, happiness and well-being,” he said. | |
| Olmert left his residence outside of Jerusalem early on Monday, accompanied by a police car. A large crowd of reporters had gathered outside the home, waiting for him to emerge as he headed to the prison in central Israel. | |
| Olmert was convicted in March 2014 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 trade minister, years before he became prime minister in 2006, a point he reiterated in his video statement Monday. | |
| He was initially sentenced to six years in the case, but Israel’s Supreme Court later upheld a lesser charge, reducing the sentence to 18 months. That was extended by a month earlier this year for pressuring a confidant not to testify in multiple legal cases against him. | |
| Olmert is also awaiting a ruling in an appeal in a separate case, in which he was sentenced to eight months in prison for unlawfully accepting money from a U.S. supporter. | |
| He was forced to resign in early 2009 amid the corruption allegations, which undermined the last serious round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and cleared the way for hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu’s rise to power. | |
| Olmert led his government to the Annapolis peace conference in November 2007 — launching more than a year of ambitious, but ultimately unsuccessful U.S.-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians. | |
| Olmert has said he made unprecedented concessions to the Palestinians during those talks — including a near-total withdrawal from the West Bank and an offer to place Jerusalem’s Old City under international control — and was close to reaching an agreement at the time of his resignation. | |
| Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |