The Justice Ministry’s Pardons Department has completed its work, “to the extent possible and based on the information before it,” in formulating an opinion on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s clemency request, the ministry said on Wednesday. It has transferred the opinion to Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu before submitting it to President Isaac Herzog.
The ministry added that if prosecution authorities submit a position before the president makes a decision, the department will update and supplement its opinion accordingly.
The announcement moved forward one of the most unusual pardon proceedings in recent memory – both because Netanyahu’s criminal trial is still ongoing and because the minister now handling the file is not Justice Minister Yariv Levin, but Eliyahu.
Levin transferred the matter to Eliyahu to avoid challenges to his involvement on conflict-of-interest grounds, framing the move as a way to prevent attempts to delay the process for months on that basis.
Under Israel’s clemency framework, the president is the formal authority empowered to grant a pardon or commute a sentence, but the request is first processed through the Justice Ministry.
The Pardons Department examines the application, gathers the relevant material and professional opinions, and prepares its own opinion for the minister handling the file; that minister then forwards a recommendation before the matter reaches the president.
Eliyahu receives opinion on Netanyahu clemency request
The Justice Ministry’s own materials describe the department as the body that reviews pardon requests and formulates the opinion brought before the justice minister, while the ministry’s 2024 annual report says the department prepares recommendations for the justice minister, who recommends to the president. Basic Law: The President of the State vests the pardon power in the president.
That helps explain why Eliyahu is the current addressee without making him the final decision-maker. He is, at least for this file, the stand-in for the justice minister on the ordinary pardon route. The legal power to approve or reject the request remains with Herzog.
The ministry’s wording also suggested the process was not yet complete. Its statement made clear that the department’s conclusions were only based on the material currently before it, and that the file could still be revised if the position of the attorney-general or prosecution authorities were submitted before any presidential decision. Per reports, Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara’s position has not yet been folded into the file and may be expected separately.
Per several reports, the department expressed reservations and concluded that Netanyahu’s request does not meet the usual threshold criteria for clemency review, noting in particular that he has not been convicted, has not admitted guilt, and has not expressed remorse.
Nevertheless, Eliyahu said publicly that the materials showed that a clemency request was indeed before him and that he would now formulate his recommendation to the president.
One link in the chain addresses whether the request can be processed procedurally, while the other looks at whether it satisfies the substantive conditions usually associated with granting relief.
That distinction matters because Netanyahu’s case does not fit the regular pardon model.
The Justice Ministry’s own public materials describe pardon review as a process built around gathering information and professional opinions for presidential decision-making, and the department’s annual report speaks in terms of recommendations prepared on the basis of a developed case file. Here, however, the trial has not ended, there is no verdict, and the prosecution’s own position is still pending.
Netanyahu’s underlying criminal case began years ago and remains unresolved. He was indicted in 2019 in Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000 on charges including bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, and his trial opened in the Jerusalem District Court in May 2020.
The proceedings later entered the defense stage, and Netanyahu began giving testimony in late 2024. The case is still ongoing, with no verdict yet handed down.
That is part of why the clemency request is so sensitive. In the ordinary public imagination, a pardon is associated with a convicted offender seeking mercy or sentence relief after the legal process has run its course. Netanyahu’s application, by contrast, has been filed while he is still standing trial.
Wednesday’s development does not resolve the request; it marks the transition from the department’s professional review to the ministerial stage.
The next immediate question is whether the attorney-general’s position will be submitted in time to be incorporated into an updated opinion before Eliyahu sends on his recommendation to Herzog. Only after that would the matter squarely reach the president’s desk.