MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) asked President Shimon Peres on Thursday not to pardon former president Moshe Katsav, who lost an appeal of his rape conviction last week.
Over a dozen female MKs from six different parties signed Hotovely's letter to the president, titled: "Strong and intense opposition to pardoning former president Moshe Katsav."
The letter explains that in the days following Katsav's appeal, in which his seven-year prison sentence was upheld, "Katsav is running a media campaign that seems to be an attempt at creating a public atmosphere that would lead to a pardon, and exempt him from being punished."