Hundreds of retired cops call on Herzog to reject Netanyahu’s pardon request

Hundreds of retired police officers call on President Isaac Herzog to reject Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon in a letter addressed to the head of state, Hebrew outlets report.

The petition, signed by around 400 former officers including ex-commissioners and deputy commissioners, warns that “such a step without [Netanyahu’s] confession and remorse is liable to ignite severe violence in Israeli society.”

The premier this week submitted a request asking the president to pardon him for criminal charges in the three cases for which he is currently standing trial, claiming that the move would mend divisive rifts within Israeli society over his ongoing prosecution.

But the undersigned officers say Netanyahu’s request contains “not even a hint of admission of guilt,” making it a nonstarter. The letter harks back to presidential pardons given by Herzog’s father, former president Chaim Herzog, to ex-Shin Bet chief Avraham Shalom and four other officers involved in the extrajudicial killings of two Palestinian bus hijackers after they were captured, known as the “Bus 300” affair.

Clemency in the 1984 incident was granted to the five before any indictments were submitted against them, after they had already admitted to wrongdoing, confessed to the acts, expressed remorse and resigned from their posts, the officers note.

“We are sure that it is important to you, as someone who is privileged to lead the country, not to go down in history as someone who succumbed to pressure to grant a political pardon against the values of truth, justice and morality, at the head of the country, and to tarnish the glorious legacy of the Herzog family for generations,” the letter reads, according to Ynet.