President Reuven Rivlin decided on Thursday not to accede to former minister Shlomo Benizri’s request to clear his criminal record of the corruption conviction for which he served almost three years in prison before he was paroled.
After considering all the material presented in Benizri’s request, the president concluded it did not justify deviating from the provisions of the Criminal Register and Rehabilitation Law, 5741-1981. In his response, the president emphasized that the claims made by Benizri regarding the reliability of the state’s witness who implicated him should be adjudicated by the courts, and not in the framework of pardons.