Israeli Ex-Premier, Olmert, Sentenced for Breach of Trust JERUSALEM - Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister of Israel, was sentenced by a Jerusalem court on Monday to a one-year suspended prison term and a maximum fine of about $19,000 for breach of trust. The relatively light sentence ended a long-running prosecution that forced Mr. Olmert from office. It also opened the way for a possible political comeback. Mr. Olmert, the first Israeli prime minister to be convicted of a criminal offense, was found guilty in July of making decisions when he was minister of trade and industry that benefited clients of a close associate. Commentators here considered the suspended sentence, which carried no determination by the court of moral turpitude, as a victory for Mr. Olmert. The prosecution had requested six months of community service, and the judges said in their ruling that in other circumstances, a public figure convicted of conflict of interest could have expected a stiffer sentence. But the judges said that this was a "special case" because of Mr. Olmert's former position and the circumstances of his resignation, and that they had taken the political and personal price already paid by Mr. Olmert into account. "Today, I leave the court with my head held high," Mr. Olmert told reporters waiting outside the court, adding that he respected the court's decisions and would learn the lessons. Still, the prospect of a speedy return to politics is clouded by the fact that Mr. Olmert is fighting another corruption case, in which he is charged with taking bribes in connection with the construction of a huge residential complex while he was the mayor of Jerusalem. Eli Abarbanel, a lawyer for the prosecution, said after Monday's decision, "We thought the principle of equality before the law required a sentence no less than community service." "This episode is not over," Mr. Abarbanel added, saying that prosecutors would study the sentence before deciding how to proceed, and that they were also studying the original verdict, with a view to a possible appeal. Mr. Olmert has acknowledged making mistakes in the years before he became prime minister, but he has always denied criminal wrongdoing. He insisted that the matter on which he was convicted, known as the Investment Center affair, amounted to procedural irregularity rather than corruption. In their ruling on Monday, the judges described the conflict of interest as "acute." Mr. Olmert was acquitted in July of two more serious matters, the most sensational one involving accusations of the transfer of large sums of money from Morris Talansky, an American businessman whose early testimony was instrumental in Mr. Olmert's downfall. The prosecution failed to prove that the money was used for private purposes. The second involved accusations that, while he was mayor of Jerusalem and later in the cabinet, he billed multiple state and charitable agencies for the same travel expenses and used the extra money for private family trips. The acquittals caused an uproar in Israel and led to questions about zealous state prosecutors who appeared to have staked their prestige on convicting the former prime minister. The judges on Monday noted that Mr. Olmert's resignation from office was connected with these matters and not the Investment Center affair. Mr. Olmert came of age politically in the Likud Party but by the time he became prime minister, he was the leader of Kadima, a centrist party established in 2005. Israeli elections have to be held within the next 14 months. Mr. Olmert's sentencing comes amid speculation about a reordering of the centrist forces in Israeli politics. Newcomers like Yair Lapid, a former journalist, have entered politics, and there is talk of a comeback by Tzipi Livni, a former foreign minister who succeeded Mr. Olmert as the leader of Kadima but was unable to form a government of her own. Soon after losing the party leadership in March, she resigned from Parliament.