A sigh of relief could be heard from the defense team of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week. The State Prosecutor’s Office had decided, on March 5, to reject a proposal by Olmert’s former Bureau Chief Shula Zaken, to sign an agreement making her a state witness in the Holyland Park real estate case. In this affair, Olmert is accused of accepting a bribe from the project's entrepreneurs when he was Mayor of Jerusalem and Minister of Industry, Trade, and Employment, in exchange for helping to advance it. Yet despite the decision by the State Prosecutor’s Office, Olmert has no reason to celebrate. Zaken’s decision to break a vow she made seven years earlier that she would not testify against the former prime minister could put the final nail in the coffin of any effort by Olmert to make a political comeback.
Zaken and her lawyers took into consideration that at such a late stage of the court’s deliberations, after she had already completed her testimony and right before the court delivers its verdict, the chances of her becoming a state witness were slim. Nevertheless, she decided to go for broke against her former boss and reveal the secrets she knew about the Holyland Park case and concerning also other accusations made against Olmert in earlier cases. Concerning the “Cash Envelopes” case, for instance, in which Olmert was acquitted in July 2012, Zaken gave testimony this week that the former prime minister used the money that he received illegally from businessman Moshe “Morris” Talansky to buy himself suits and expensive cigars.
