EPAIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has submitted a clemency request to the country’s President Isaac Herzog.
The president’s office said Herzog would seek input from justice officials before considering an “extraordinary request with significant implications.”
Netanyahu has been on trial for the past five years on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases. He denies any wrongdoing.
He said in a video message that he would have liked to see the process through to the end, but the national interest “demanded otherwise”.
Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump urged Herzog to “fully pardon” the prime minister.
At the time, Herzog made it clear that anyone seeking a pardon would have to submit a formal request.
On Sunday, the President’s Office released the request and a letter from the Prime Minister himself in light of “the importance of this extraordinary request and its implications”.
There was no indication as to when the President might reach a decision.
In 2020, Netanyahu became the first serving Israeli prime minister to stand trial.
In the first case, prosecutors alleged that he received gifts – primarily cigars and bottles of champagne – from powerful businessmen in exchange for favors.
He has been accused in a second case of offering to help improve the circulation of an Israeli newspaper in exchange for positive coverage.
And in a third, prosecutors allege that he promoted regulatory decisions favorable to the controlling shareholder of an Israeli telecommunications company in exchange for positive coverage by a news website.
Netanyahu has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has described the trial as a “witch-hunt” by political opponents.
He said in a Sunday video message that the continuation of the testing “breaks us from within” at a time when Israel was facing “enormous challenges and along with them great opportunities” that required unity.
The Prime Minister said, “I am sure, as are many others in the country, that an immediate end to the trial will help douse the flames and promote comprehensive reconciliation – which our country desperately needs.”
According to Israel’s Basic Law, the President has the power to “pardon criminals and commute or commute (commute) their sentences”.
However, Israel’s High Court has previously ruled that the President can pardon a person before they are convicted if it is in the public interest or if there are extreme personal circumstances.
Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and its supporters have always supported amnesty for their leader.
But for many in Israel – especially on the left – it will be seen as another step away from the country’s sense of itself as a strong democracy with a strong legal system.
The public feared this was an attack on the government’s plans for judicial reforms, which had brought thousands of people to the streets in protest for several months before the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks, which triggered the most recent Gaza war.
<a href