Benjamin Netanyahu seeks pardon from Israel's president

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has submitted a request for a pardon to the country's President Isaac Herzog.

The president's office said Herzog would receive opinions from justice officials before considering the "extraordinary request which carries with it significant implications".

Netanyahu has been standing trial for the past five years on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in connection with three separate cases. He denies any wrongdoing.

He said in a video message that he would have preferred to see the process to the end, but national interest "demanded otherwise".

Early 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 had to submit a formal request.

On Sunday, the president's office released the request and a letter by the prime minister himself, in light of "the importance of this extraordinary request and its implications".

It offered no indication of 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 - mainly cigars and bottles of champagne - from powerful businessmen in exchange for favours.

He is 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 have alleged that he promoted regulatory decisions favourable to the controlling shareholder of an Israeli telecoms company in exchange for positive coverage by a news website.

Netanyahu has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and branded the trial as a "witch-hunt" by political opponents.

He said in Sunday's video message that the continuation of the trial "tears us apart from within" at a time when Israel was facing "enormous challenges, and alongside them great opportunities" that required unity.

"I am certain, as are many others in the nation, that an immediate end to the trial would greatly help lower the flames and promote broad reconciliation - something our country desperately needs," the prime minister added.

According to Israel's Basic Law, the president "has the power to pardon criminals and reduce or transmute [alter] their sentence".

However, Israel's High Court of Justice has previously ruled that the president could pardon an individual 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 his supporters have always supported a pardon for their leader.

But for many in Israel - especially on the left - it would be seen as another move away from the country's sense of itself as a robust democracy with a strong legal system.

It was public fears that this was under attack with the government's plans for judicial reforms that brought hundreds of thousands out onto the streets in protest for many months before the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023 that triggered the most recent Gaza war.