Tel Aviv: A court in Jerusalem Tuesday cleared former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert of multiple fraud and corruption charges but found him guilty of breach of trust while in office.
Olmert said he respects the court for acquitting him of the central corruption charges, stressing that he was only found guilty of “procedural improprieties” and that he would absorb the lessons of the verdict.
“There are judges in Jerusalem,” Olmert said, quoting former prime minister Menachem Begin.
Olmert’s defence attorneys said they would not appeal the verdict if the prosecution does not.
Jerusalem District Attorney Eli Abarbanel admitted his office was surprised by the verdict.
“We didn’t except this ruling, but we can’t make light of the fact that he was convicted of a very serious offence. The court criticised Olmert and found him at fault for gross conflict of interest,” he was quoted by Ynetnews as saying.
Olmert resigned September 2008 amid multiple corruption allegations. The former prime minister has been the first top-level Israeli official to stand trial for such serious offences, which were allegedly committed while in office.
Among other things, Olmert was accused of receiving cash payments from US businessman Morris Talansky, using budget funds to pay for private trips, and lobbying interests for his business partner and friend Uri Messer. (IANS)
Russian Wikipedia protests censorship plans
Moscow: The Russian version of Wikipedia, the world’s largest free online encyclopaedia, temporarily suspended work Tuesday protesting a bill that proposes a unified digital blacklist of all websites containing banned content.
The draft legislation has been criticised by civil rights activists and internet providers as an attempt to introduce censorship of the Russian segment of the internet.
“Wikipedia community protests against censorship, which threatens free knowledge opened for the mankind,” Wikipedia said in a statement on its Russian-language website.
“We ask you to support us in the fight against this bill,” it said.
The site is expected to stay offline for 24 hours.
The idea of the blacklist originated last year from Russia’s League of Internet Security after the internet watchdog said it had broken up an international ring of 130 alleged paedophiles circulating material via the internet. (IANS)