JERUSALEM (JTA) — Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was sentenced to six years in prison for his conviction for accepting bribes in the Holyland corruption case, making him the first Israeli  prime minister ever to be sent to jail.

Olmert also was fined $1 million shekels, or about $290,000, during his sentencing Tuesday morning in Tel Aviv District Court.

Olmert was convicted in March on two counts of bribery, for accepting about $150,000 from developers of the Holyland project, in what has been called the country’s largest corruption scandal. He then became the first former Israeli prime minister to be convicted of taking a bribe and is the first ever to be sentenced to prison.

He and six other men sentenced Tuesday morning in the Holyland case were ordered to present themselves to the prisons service on Sept. 1.

Judge David Rozen ruled that Olmert’s conviction includes “moral turpitude.” Those whose convictions include moral turpitude cannot seek public office for at least seven years.

“Those who give bribes are corrupt, but those who receive it inspire disgrace and cause the public to lose faith in the State. A public servant who accepts bribes is equivalent to a traitor,” the judge said in the courtroom.

Olmert said in court that he never accepted bribes and that he will appeal the conviction, as well as the verdict, to the country’s Supreme Court. “I am proud of the decade in which I ran the honest city (of Jerusalem),” he said.

Olmert resigned as prime minister in September 2008 after police investigators recommended that he be indicted in multiple corruption scandals.

The Jerusalem District Court acquitted Olmert in 2012 on charges of fraud, breach of trust, tax evasion and falsifying corporate records in what became known as the Talansky and Rishon Tours affairs. He was found guilty on a charge of breach of trust in what is known as the Investment Center case; he appealed the verdict.

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