President Isaac Herzog is considering the option of commuting the prison sentence of right-wing extremist Ami Popper, who massacred seven Palestinian workers in Rishon Lezion in 1990, in the event a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas is reached, the Ynet news site reports.
Popper, originally sentenced to seven life terms plus 20 years, had his sentence communted to 40 years in 1999 and is slated for release in 2030.
The unsourced report says teams in the Justice Ministry and the President’s Residence have been reviewing requests by Jewish security prisoners to shorten their sentences as a form of “balancing out” the potential mass release of Palestinian terrorists, including those convicted of murder, as part of a deal.
Herzog’s office tells the outlet that no decision has been made, and one will only be made if a deal materializes.
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