Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in about a week, is scheduled to appear before a parole board to ask to have one-third removed from his prison sentence for good behavior. This is standard practice with all prisoners, including Olmert.

However, it was just a few days ago during a visit by one of his lawyers that prison guards realized Mr. Olmert passed documents to attorney Chananya Brandeis. Brandeis was checked upon leaving the prison in line with standard procedure, and the documents were discovered. A prisoner may not pass documents to anyone, including an attorney, without having them approved by prison officials. Olmert decided to bypass the regulations.

In response, Olmert’s Shabbos leave was canceled along with all leaves until further notice. His phone privileges are also limited to his attorneys and first line relations.

The papers were taken from his attorney and given to police to determine if they are confidential in nature. This is not believed to be the case.

This most recent incident is added to a previous one during which he got into an altercation with a guard. There too his leaves were canceled for a month and a half. In yet another case, authorities learned that during a leave Olmert met with persons who require obtaining permission in advance from prison officials, which he did not bother doing.

It now remains to be determined if these incidents will impact a parole board’s decision to cut one-third from his sentence.

Olmert, 72, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for his white-collar crimes. He began serving his sentence in February 2016. If given the one-third off, he would be released in August 2017 but if not, his release would be delayed until May 2018.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)