Rivlin rejects ex-minister's clemency request

President Reuven Rivlin rejects a request for clemency from former tourism minister Stas Misezhnikov, who is serving a 15-month prison term on breach of trust charges, Hebrew-language media reports.

Misezhnikov, a Yisrael Beytenu lawmaker who served as minister in 2009-2013, was prosecuted for allotting ministry funding for a student festival in 2012 in the southern port city of Eilat and then asking organizers to employ his romantic partner in return. Organizers complied, paying her tens of thousands of shekels during the period in question. The ministry’s funding came to some NIS 1 million ($270,000).

The charges against Misezhnikov were linked to a massive corruption investigation into a number of Yisrael Beytenu party officials.