Ex-Israeli PM Ehud Olmert begins 19-month prison sentence for bribery

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has arrived at the prison where he is to begin serving a 19-month sentence for bribery and obstruction of justice.

Olmert is the first Israeli prime minister to serve time in prison. TV footage showed him walking into the Maasiyahu prison in central Israel.

The 70-year-old 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.

Olmert’s seven-year legal saga undermined the last serious round of Middle East peace talks and propelled hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to power.