A significant development in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s pardon request occurred on Wednesday when the Justice Ministry announced that the Pardon Department submitted its opinion on the request to Minister Amichai Eliyahu, bypassing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who requested that the transfer be delayed until she issues her own opinion.

i24NEWS reported on Tuesday that Baharav-Miara planned on meeting on Wednesday with the head of the Pardons Department in order to deliver her negative opinion regarding the prime minister’s pardon request.

It was also reported that she formulated her position without holding a preliminary meeting with the prosecutors handling the case, with the justification that “there is no need for it. This is not a pardon request.”

Minister Eliyahu stated, “From an initial review of the materials, a clear picture emerges: in complete contradiction to the Attorney General’s briefings claiming that ‘this is not a pardon request at all,’ the professional opinion explicitly determines that this is indeed a proper and lawful pardon request, requiring continued handling by the President.”

Minister Eliyahu sent a sharply worded letter to Baharav-Miara on Tuesday, demanding that she immediately transfer the file on Netanyahu’s pardon request to him.

Eliyahu wrote that he had learned the Pardons Department had already been completed and was ready to be transferred but that Baharav-Miara had instructed the Justice Ministry not to transfer it to him.

It has now become clear that the opinion was transferred despite Baharav-Miara’s position.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)