President denies pardon to woman serving life for murdering her abusive husband

President Reuven Rivlin on Tuesday rejected an appeal for a pardon by a woman who was jailed for life for murdering her abusive husband.

The president based his decision to leave Erica Frishkin behind bars on a professional assessment of her case, his office said in a statement.

However, should Frishkin submit another request in six months, this time to shorten her sentence, the president would consider the matter, alongside the professional opinion of prison staff, the statement said.

Frishkin, 52, has so far served 17 years of a 30-year sentence for the murder of her husband Daniel Tetroashvili, whom she fatally stabbed dozens of times in 2003.

She said that years of physical and emotional abuse drove her to carry out the killing. Frishkin has not yet served two-thirds of her sentence, which would qualify her for an early release with good behavior.

Rivlin “sees paramount importance in raising awareness of the fight against violence against women and the eradication of the phenomenon using all the tools available to us as a society,” the president’s office said in the statement.

The fact that Frishkin was physically and mentally abused during her life with her husband “is significant in his eyes,” it said.

The Ba’al Korchan lobby group, which campaigns for the release of women jailed for killing their abusive partners, expressed “deep sorrow and disappointment” at Rivlin’s decision.

In a post to its Facebook page the group faulted Rivlin for denying her request even while he had acknowledged that Frishkin was the victim of ongoing sexual, physical and mental abuse “which pushed her into the darkest abyss.”

Noting that 20 women have been killed in Israel this year by their partners, or those close to them, the group said Rivlin’s decision is “inconceivable.”

“The president has so far demonstrated he is a partner in the fight against gender-based violence, but, with great regret, it can only be stated that this time he failed,” the group said.

Frishkin was born in Hungary and immigrated to Israel with her husband. They later divorced and she married Tetroashvili. They were together for seven years, during which time they had a daughter. She reportedly also has a son from her pervious marriage.

During her marriage to Tetroashvili her case was known to social services and she filed several police complaints, according to Hebrew media reports.

Violence against women in Israel has driven recent protests calling for reform.

Demonstrators highlight the fact that a national plan to fight domestic violence was approved in 2017 by the Knesset but has since been abandoned, waiting for funding. Activists say most of the approved NIS 250 million ($71 million) has not yet been transferred to relevant authorities.

Police and social services organizations have reported a major rise in domestic violence complaints since the start of the coronavirus crisis.