Staff Reporter

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has formally requested a presidential pardon from President Isaac Herzog for the bribery, fraud, and breach of trust charges in his ongoing corruption trial.

This is a dramatic and highly controversial move that has ignited a political firestorm and raised fundamental questions about the rule of law.

The request, submitted yesterday in a 111-page document by the Prime Minister’s legal team, asks the President to end the five-year-long trial, arguing that doing so would be in the national interest to promote unity and allow him to focus on critical state affairs.

Crucially, the request does not include an admission of guilt or expression of remorse from Netanyahu, who has consistently denied all allegations, calling the case a witch-hunt orchestrated by the media and judiciary.

President Herzog’s office acknowledged the submission, calling it an extraordinary request which carries with it significant implications.

The file has been forwarded to the Justice Ministry’s pardons department for legal opinions before the President’s own legal adviser formulates a recommendation.

Netanyahu, the first sitting Israeli Prime Minister to stand trial, defended his action in a televised statement, asserting his personal desire to continue the trial until full acquittal, but claiming that the security and political reality, the national interest, demands otherwise.

“The ongoing trial is tearing us apart from within, fuelling fierce disagreements, and deepening divisions,” Netanyahu stated.

The demand for a pardon before conviction or admission of guilt is considered a precedent-setting maneuver in Israeli law, with legal scholars immediately expressing skepticism.

Yair Lapid, the leader of the Yesh Atid party, messaged Herzog, stating that they could not grant a pardon without admission of guilt.

“You cannot grant Netanyahu a pardon without an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse, and an immediate withdrawal from political life.

” Only the guilty seek pardon.” He said.

The Prime Minister’s move comes weeks after President Donald Trump publicly urged Herzog to pardon Netanyahu.