Two years and three months after the indictment was filed, it ended this morning (Monday)."The Holyland Affair", which according to the police and the prosecutor's office constituted one of the largest corruption scandals the State of Israel has ever known, in the drama: Judge David Rosen convicted the former prime minister of accepting bribes and ruled that "the state witness exposed corrupt public systems in the trial." He also said: "Olmert sought to blacken the state's witness even at the cost of telling a lie." The former Prime Minister's version Ehud Olmert Rejected by the judge "out of all proportion." State witness "He transferred the money to Ehud Olmert, and he didn't know his brother Yossi."
Entrepreneur Charny convicted of bribery and money laundering. The other defendants were also convicted in the same way - including Uri Lupoliansky, Eli Shamchiof, Meir Rabin and Avraham Fener. Only the defendants Amnon Safran, Shimon Galon and Yaakov Efrati were acquitted..
The judge decided to convict the mayor. Jerusalem Former Uri Lupolianski on charges of receiving bribe He said: "Lupolianski was aware of the large donations that were transferred, and acted contrary to proper standards."
The indictment against 13 defendants described a twisted give-and-take relationship between businessmen and elected officials, with ten million shekels passing from hand to hand, with the aim of turning a residential project in Jerusalem into a real estate monster, which yielded huge profits for developers and benefits for officials, officials and public figures.
The trial opened a year and nine months ago in the Tel Aviv District Court, and it proceeded at a fast pace, four days a week, 12 hours each day, with no fewer than 377 prosecution witnesses.
The verdict was already ready, but the events of the past week have thrown the cards into the balance: After long weeks of negotiations, Shula Zaken, defendant number 9, who was the chief of staff to former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, signed a state's witness agreement, in which she presented new information about the involvement of defendant number 8 - OlmertFollowing this Opened New investigation against the former prime minister, on suspicion of obstruction of justice and witness harassment.
Last Thursday, the prosecutor's office requested To postpone the verdict which was supposed to be given this morning. Yesterday afternoon, Judge David Rosen decided not to decideHe announced that all 13 defendants in the Holyland case must appear for trial, but did not announce whether the verdict would be published.
The Holyland affair revolved around a plan in southwest Jerusalem, the progress of which was carried out between 1994 and 1999, and its goal was to change the face of the real estate project in terms of the land designation and the volume of building rights in the complex. This meant granting approval for high-rise construction and a significant change in the appearance of the Holyland Ridge compared to other neighborhoods in Jerusalem. The volume of construction in the project was defined in the indictment as "unprecedented."
According to the indictment, the developer Hillel Charny and the late State Witness Shmuel Dechner - who died during the trial - transferred funds to elected officials and employees in the Jerusalem Municipality, with the aim of garnering their support in promoting the project. In total, Charny transferred NIS 8,966,881 to the State Witness so that he could transfer them to various elected officials and public employees.
Charney is the number 1 defendant in the case. He is charged with bribery, false registration in corporate documents, unlawful deduction of input tax and money laundering. According to the indictment, Charney, together with the state's witness, devised a multi-stage scheme that lasted from 1994 to 2007, and granted financial and other benefits to elected officials and public employees entrusted with promoting the project.
Defendant number 2 is Avigdor Kellner, who was a co-founder of the "Holyland Park" company, served as its active manager, and was a full partner in its decision-making.
Defendant number 3, Amnon Safran, was one of the founders of "Holyland Park" and an active manager there. Defendant number 4, Shimon Galon, served as an active manager at "Holyland Park."
The three are suspected of bribery, false registration in corporate documents, illegal deduction of input tax and money laundering. The indictment defined them as a group that was a partner in Cherny's plan.
Meir Rabin, defendant number 5, who was employed as the personal assistant to the late state witness Shmuel Dechner, is accused of taking and giving bribes.
Uri Lupoliansky, former mayor of Jerusalem, is defendant number 6. According to the indictment, during the 1990s, Lupoliansky received a bribe of 1.5 million shekels "by way of making donations to the Yad Sarah association," of which Lupoliansky is the founder and headed it for years. According to the indictment, he worked to get the plan for the development of the Holyland complex approved, and in the process "prevented the hearing of about a thousand objections submitted to the plan by the local committee, prevented the local committee from presenting a position on the objections, and decided to leave this issue for discussion by the district committee alone." According to the indictment, even after the plan was approved, Lupolianski continued to request and receive funds from Czerny, and received a total of about 2,740,000 shekels over the years, most of it for "Yad Sara."
Architect Uri Sheetrit is defendant number 7, who served as Jerusalem city engineer between 2000 and 2006. He is accused of taking bribes, false registration, and money laundering.
Defendants numbers 8 and 9 are, as mentioned, Olmert and Zaken.
Defendant number 10 is Shas city council member Eliezer Shamchiof, who is accused of taking bribes. According to the indictment, he was involved at the time in various proceedings related to the Holyland project, and took at least 245,000 shekels for him and another party.
Avraham Fenner is defendant number 11, accused of taking bribes. Between 1998 and 2007, he served in various positions in the Jerusalem Municipality, including member and deputy member of the local committee and member of the tenders committee. After learning about the state witness's work on behalf of the project, according to the indictment, he asked Czerny and the witness to make donations to the institutions he founded. In 1999 and 2000, Charney gave Fenner over a million shekels, "in the form of donations to institutions." In return, according to the indictment, Fenner worked to promote the project and, among other things, lobbied municipal and professional officials.
Defendant number 12 is Danny Dankner, who served as chairman of Salt Industries between 2002 and 2004. According to the indictment, he worked to promote a change in the company's land designation and, to that end, transferred approximately 1.1 million shekels to defendant Meir Rabin, so that he could transfer it to defendant number 13 in the case - the director of the Israel Lands Administration, Yaakov Efrati.
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