Olmert’s former aide gets three-years jail – most suspended
Shula Zaken, the former bureau chief of convicted ex-prime minister Ehud Olmert, offered critical testimony that strengthened the case against him when she appeared in the same court Thursday to face the charges of corruption she shares with him. Zaken had meanwhile turned state witness against her former boss and in a plea bargain deal with the prosecution was offered a reduced 11-month jail sentence. In recognition of this deal, district court Judge David Rosen handed down a three-year sentence against Zaken – but agreed to the added period of two years and one month being suspended.
In answer to the judge’s questions, Zaken testified that Olmert as Jerusalem mayor had not only been aware of the cash-bribe given her in a brown envelope by the late Shmuel Dachner, go-between with the Holyland luxury real estate project, but he had counted the money in her presence and determined how it would be apportioned. But she also admitted she had received large sums of money from Olmert's bribe money for purchasing an apartment and was judged guilty of taking bribes and money laundering.