Former UK PM says relationship with Ehud Olmert, convicted of receiving $600,000 from a US businessman, was ‘based on friendship and trust’

Tony Blair has made a surprise intervention in the corruption case of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, writing a letter to the court in support of his plea not to be sent to prison.

The glowing character reference for Olmert, who was convicted in March of receiving $600,000 (£400,000) in cash-stuffed envelopes between 1993 and 2002 from an American businessman, Morris Talansky, was one of several produced by Olmert’s defence team – another being supplied by the former Mossad head Meir Dagan.

Olmert already faces six years in prison for his role in the Holyland real estate bribery scandal, although the sentence is on hold pending the completion of an appeal.

Although the letter from Blair appears to have been written in a personal capacity, the former UK prime minister remains in a high-profile and sensitive role as the Quartet’s Middle East envoy, although reports earlier this year suggested he was on the verge of standing down.

In the Talansky case, Olmert faces demands from the prosecution that he should serve between eight and 18 months in jail for offences committed while he was mayor of Jerusalem.

Blair’s letter was produced at the beginning of the sentencing hearing at Jerusalem district court in which he praised Olmert’s efforts, as prime minister, to advance the Middle East peace process. The letter, perhaps unusually, suggested the leaders’ relationship went “beyond that between heads of government” and was “based on friendship and trust with a clear understanding of the needs and sensitivities of the other side”.

Olmert also pleaded with the judges not to jail him, arguing that the shame of his conviction and loss of reputation was punishment enough. “What do I say to my grandchild who hears bad things about me from his friends?” he said. “The real punishment is the shame.”

In his letter, Dagan said Olmert had made “many courageous decisions … which contributed, and continue to contribute, to the state’s security”.

The case was reopened after Olmert’s former bureau chief, Shula Zaken, handed over incriminating tapes showing the former prime minister had not been truthful when he claimed in a previous trial that the money Talansky had given him had not been for personal use.