"We couldn't believe our ears": Years after the Holyland trial, Shula Zaken's lawyer reveals everything
In a special interview with the "Maariv" podcast, attorney Ofer Bartal reveals the shock that gripped the defense team when they first listened to the conversations between the former Prime Minister and his chief of staff. And also: the heavy price of becoming a state witness.
Attorney Ofer Bartal, who represented Shula Zaken along with his partner in the Holyland affair, returns in a special interview with the "Maariv" podcast to the moment when her lawyers were exposed to the recordings of the conversations between her and former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert — just days before the verdict. According to him, for them as well, it was a dramatic development that changed the picture of the case.
"She knew Olmert from the age of 16," Bartal said. "Listen, I have to tell you, Shula ultimately became a state witness. I don't advise people to be state witnesses. It is very difficult, even if you are completely exempted from prison as a result of reaching a state witness agreement. It is difficult because you are always seen as a snitch, a whistleblower, even though you are helping the court to do justice."
Bartal added that the price a state witness pays does not necessarily end with the criminal proceeding itself. "In white-collar crimes, sometimes it is better not to be a state witness, even if you will receive a sentence and go to prison. Sometimes it is preferable because when you are released, you will not be an outcast in the society in which you have moved all your life." And then came, according to him, the moment that changed everything: "Ten days before Shula Zaken's verdict, we were exposed to the recordings for the first time and we couldn't believe our ears. In very, very important cases, anything can happen. Everything is everything."
The recordings that became a central part of the affair
For decades, Zaken was one of the closest figures to Olmert and served as his chief of staff. The two stood together at the center of several criminal cases investigated during that period, and later Zaken reached a settlement with the prosecution and handed over to it recordings of conversations she had with Olmert. In 2014, when she was brought from Neve Tirza prison to testify at the Jerusalem District Court, some of the transcripts of the conversations were released for publication.
The recordings dealt, among other things, with money, Zaken's diaries, and the possibility that she would come to testify. From the prosecution's point of view, some of the conversations strengthened the claims that Olmert made personal use of funds held by attorney Uri Messer and tried to influence Zaken's decision on whether to provide testimony. On the other hand, Olmert and his people claimed that he did not ask her not to testify in order to protect himself, but warned her of the legal damage that could be caused to her, and that the funds discussed were used for political needs. It was further claimed on his part that Zaken conducted part of the conversations in a way intended to extract incriminating statements from him.
In one of the conversations, Olmert is heard saying to Zaken: "I am very afraid that you will take the witness stand, not because of me, but because of you," and later explained to her that if she does not testify, her diaries could not be used in the same way as evidence. The prosecution attributed an incriminating meaning to these words, while Olmert claimed that it was advice and a conversation about the common defense line of two defendants whose legal fate was intertwined.
In another conversation, which dealt with funds that Zaken received from the late Shmuel Dachner, Zaken was heard saying to Olmert: "You wanted me to say and I couldn't stand it... You told me to say that you broke it and returned it to him, and I couldn't lie, because it wasn't the truth." Olmert claimed in response that Zaken knew she was recording him and tried to create the impression through the conversation as if he had ordered her to lie.
Other recordings dealt with funds held by Uri Messer and the question of whether they were used for private purposes. In one of them, the two were heard discussing sums transferred to Zaken, and Olmert referred, among other things, to 25 thousand dollars in shekels and another 20 thousand dollars in cash. The prosecution claimed that the proximity of the conversation about the money to the discussions on legal matters strengthened its claims, while Olmert's associates argued that it was legitimate assistance to Zaken and that the funds were used for political needs and to finance her expenses.
