Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday asked President Isaac Herzog to pardon him\u00a0for bribery and fraud charges to end his five-year corruption trial.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu is facing three separate corruption cases filed in 2019: Case 1000, Case 2000, and Case 4000, which involve allegations of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.<\/p>\n
Here is what we know:<\/p>\n
What is Netanyahu\u2019s argument?<\/h2>\n
Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing and claims the corruption trial is a \u201cdeep state\u201d conspiracy, a politically orchestrated \u201cwitch-hunt\u201d by rivals and the media.<\/p>\n
He has also argued that if he is pardoned, he will be able to strengthen Israel at a tumultuous time for the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The Israeli PM\u2019s submission comes weeks after United States President Donald Trump urged Herzog to pardon Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s 111-page pardon request submitted to Herzog\u2019s office refers to Trump\u2019s earlier request.<\/p>\n
Analysts and observers posit that in his efforts to avoid the trials and possible conviction, Netanyahu has been extending and expanding Israel\u2019s genocidal assault\u00a0on the besieged Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
Would Netanyahu have to admit guilt to be pardoned?<\/h2>\n
In his pardon request, Netanyahu does not admit guilt or wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said Netanyahu cannot be granted a pardon \u201cwithout an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse, and an immediate retirement from political life\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, legally, an admission of guilt is not required, Dana Blander, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, wrote in an article. Legally, there are no conditions for a pardon.<\/p>\n
The pardon request will first be reviewed by the Ministry of Justice\u2019s pardons department, which will send its opinion to Herzog\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
While the president usually follows the ministry\u2019s recommendation, he is not required to do so.<\/p>\n
Herzog has previously said he sees a negotiated settlement between prosecutors and Netanyahu\u2019s legal team as the most effective way to conclude this legal matter.<\/p>\n Israelis protested outside Herzog\u2019s home in Tel Aviv on Sunday night against Netanyahu\u2019s pardon petition, joined by opposition politicians, including Naama Lazimi.<\/p>\n Herzog and Netanyahu are former political rivals, but they have a good working relationship.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter receiving all of the relevant opinions, the president will responsibly and sincerely consider the request,\u201d a statement from Herzog\u2019s office said in response to the pardon request.<\/p>\n \u201cHe basically says, \u2018I\u2019m completely innocent,\u2019\u201d Yohanan Plesner, president of The Israel Democracy Institute, told The Associated Press news agency.<\/p>\n \u201cSo there is no assumption of responsibility \u2026 this might project a problematic message to all public figures and to what our public norms might look like.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a breakdown:<\/p>\n Netanyahu was charged in 2019, while he was prime minister, with fraud and breach of trust during his tenure as minister of communications from 2014 to 2017.<\/p>\n The charges say Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, received lavish gifts worth nearly $200,000, including champagne and cigars, from two wealthy businessmen in exchange for political favours.<\/p>\n The businessmen are Israeli Hollywood film producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer.<\/p>\n Milchan testified that he provided gifts to Netanyahu in June 2020. Packer was also implicated as having shared the costs of these expensive gifts with Milchan.<\/p>\n Netanyahu is accused of advancing Milchan\u2019s interests by helping him secure a US visa renewal by lobbying US officials on his behalf. He is also accused of advancing a tax exemption law that could have benefitted Israelis abroad, like Milchan.<\/p>\n As for Packer, media reports claimed that he was making big investments in Israel, and his lawyers had inquired about Israeli citizenship or residency for the billionaire, which would have benefitted him tax-wise.<\/p>\n Fraud and breach of trust can carry prison sentences of up to three years, while bribery can carry up to 10 years and\/or a fine.<\/p>\n The goods were valued at approximately 700,000 shekels ($186,000), according to a statement made by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit following the indictment.<\/p>\n This case also charges him with fraud and breach of trust, saying\u00a0Netanyahu made a deal with businessman Aron Mozes, a controlling shareholder of the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, which was critical of Netanyahu.<\/p>\n The alleged deal was for favourable coverage of Netanyahu in exchange for legislation to slow the growth of the rival Israel Hayom newspaper, which had overtaken Yedioth Ahronoth. A legislative bill was being considered that would have limited Israel Hayom\u2019s circulation.<\/p>\n The indictment summary said, despite \u201ca profound rivalry\u201d between the two men, they conducted three series of meetings between 2008 and 2014.<\/p>\n During these meetings, Netanyahu and Mozes \u201cengaged in discussions regarding the promotion of their common interests: improving the coverage that Mr. Netanyahu received in the \u2018Yedioth Ahronoth\u2019 media group; and the imposition of restrictions on the \u2018Israel Hayom\u2019 newspaper\u201d, the indictment said.<\/p>\n This case indicts Netanyahu for granting regulatory favours to Israeli telecommunications company Bezeq in return for positive coverage on Walla, a news website controlled by its former chairman.<\/p>\n Netanyahu, communications minister at the time, allegedly provided regulatory benefits to Shaul Elovitch, the owner of Bezeq, who also controlled the news website Walla.<\/p>\n The benefits reportedly included mergers and financial gains.\u00a0In exchange, Elovitch provided favourable coverage of Netanyahu and his wife.<\/p>\n Netanyahu \u201cdealt on several occasions with regulatory matters pertaining to Mr Elovitch, and took specific actions that promoted significant business interests of Mr Elovitch of substantial financial value\u201d, the indictment summary said.<\/p>\n Besides fraud and breach of trust, Netanyahu has been charged with bribery in this case.<\/p>\n Since 1996, every Israeli prime minister has been the subject of a corruption investigation.<\/p>\n Netanyahu, in his first term as prime minister, was investigated for reasons including a kickback scheme and influence peddling.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Ehud Barak was investigated on allegations of illegal campaign financing, bribery and money laundering.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the late 1990s in what came to be known as the Greek Island affair.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was convicted of taking $430,000 in bribes while he was mayor of Jerusalem. He was imprisoned in February 2016 for fraud, breach of trust, falsifying corporate records, and tax evasion.<\/p>\n Netanyahu returned to the premiership. During this period, he was charged with the cases above, while two other cases against him were dropped.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday asked President Isaac Herzog to pardon him\u00a0for bribery and fraud charges to end his five-year corruption trial. Netanyahu is facing three separate corruption cases filed in 2019: Case 1000, Case 2000, and Case 4000, which involve allegations of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. Here is what we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explained"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Interactive_Netanhyahu_prosecution_charges_trial_Israel_court_Dec2_2024-1733138488\"](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Interactive_Netanhyahu_prosecution_charges_trial_Israel_court_Dec2_2024-1733138488.jpg?quality=80\")
How have Israeli leaders and people reacted?<\/h2>\n
What is Netanyahu accused of?<\/h2>\n
Case 1000, the \u2018Gifts Affair\u2019<\/h3>\n
Case 2000, the \u2018Netanyahu-Mozes affair\u2019<\/h3>\n
Case 4000, the \u2018Bezeq affair\u2019<\/h3>\n
What other Israeli politicians were charged with corruption?<\/h2>\n
1996-99<\/h3>\n
1999-2001<\/h3>\n
2001-06<\/h3>\n
2006-09<\/h3>\n
2009-21<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"