[JURIST] Israel’s Supreme Court [official website] on Wednesday unanimously rejected an appeal by former prime minister Ehud Olmert attempting to shorten his sentence for accepting bribes. The court, taking into account both the severity of the sentence and the conviction, upheld [Al-Monitor report] Olmert’s sentence but also rejected an appeal from the prosecution appealing Olmert’s acquittal in another matter as well as a call for a harsher sentence [JTA report]. The ruling means that Olmert will serve a total of 27 months in prison.

Earlier this year an Israeli court extended [JURIST report] Olmert’s 18-month jail sentence by one month. Olmert was sentenced to serve five months for obstruction of justice concurrently with the sentence for bribery charges and one additional month consecutively [BBC report], totaling 27 months. Olmert was convicted in March 2014 and sentenced [JURIST report] to six years imprisonment on several charges dealing with bribery. His sentence was postponed [JURIST report] pending the appeal of his conviction. Olmert was accused of accepting money to promote a real-estate project in Jerusalem when he was mayor and the country’s trade minister. He was forced to resign in 2009 amid the bribery charges, but has always denied any wrongdoing on his part.