Benjamin Netanyahu asks Israel’s president for pardon in corruption case
Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Israel’s president for a pardon for bribery and fraud charges and an end to a five-year corruption trial, arguing that it would be in the “national interest”.
Isaac Herzog’s office acknowledged receipt of the 111-page submission from the prime minister’s lawyer, and said it had been passed on to the pardons department in the ministry of justice. The president’s legal adviser would also formulate an opinion before Herzog made a decision, it added.
“The office of the president is aware that this is an extraordinary request which carries with it significant implications,” a statement from his office said. “After receiving all of the relevant opinions, the president will responsibly and sincerely consider the request.”
Presidential pardons in Israel have almost never been granted before conviction, with the one notable exception of a 1986 case involving the Shin Bet security service. A pre-emptive pardon of a politician in a corruption case without an admission of guilt would be precedent-setting and highly controversial. […]
The single significant precedent is a case from nearly 40 years ago, in which senior Shin Bet officials were accused of covering up the execution of two Palestinian militants involved in a bus hijack. The high court of justice allowed the president at the time, Chaim Herzog – the father of the current president – to issue pre-indictment pardons in the circumstances.
However, legal scholars say it is far from clear that the 1986 case, Barzilai v government of Israel, would provide a precedent for Netanyahu’s corruption trial, especially in the absence of an admission of guilt from the prime minister.
In the Barzilai case, the officials admitted guilt and the head of the Shin Bet resigned. The absence of admission or resignation on Netanyahu’s part would make it very hard for Herzog to issue a pardon, argued Suzie Navot, a constitutional law professor at the Israeli Democracy Institute.
“This would be stopping an ongoing criminal proceeding for bribery. It has nothing to do with the [1986 Barzilai case],” Navot said. “What Netanyahu wants now is actually to be above the law.”
Has he ever wanted to be anything else? For that matter, has he been anything else for the last two years especially? And frankly, why would Bibi be asking for a pardon if he were innocent? He wouldn’t need one unless he thought he would be found guilty, and he probably wouldn’t be if he weren’t in fact guilty, and pre-emptively asking for a pardon like this makes him look like he might just be. Indeed, I wonder if he’s not doing this to try and have a mistrial declared… I have no idea how Israeli law works, but if there’s a jury in this case (good luck to whom if there is, given it’s been running for five years) then isn’t there a risk Bibi’s statement could influence them? I don’t know, maybe I’m overreading it, but none of this seems like an innocent man at work…
