The legal opinion transferred by the Justice Ministry’s Pardons Department to Minister Amichai Eliyahu includes significant reservations regarding Netanyahu’s pardon request, Channel 14 reported on Wednesday.

The opinion states that in the absence of an admission of guilt, it is difficult to classify the prime minister under the legal definition of a “criminal,” the category that the president is authorized to pardon under the law.

Eliyahu, who was selected by Justice Minister Yariv Levin to advance the pardon request, has asked to convene various legal experts, including legal advisers of government ministries, in order to obtain additional opinions on the matter.

Netanyahu has refused to admit guilt for the trumped-up cases against him, which have fallen apart one by one in the courtroom, with multiple claims disproven or withdrawn. In addition, multiple incidents of police investigators acting illegally in the cases have been revealed in the courtroom.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)