Former Justice Minister Dan Meridor, a longtime past member of the Likud, commented on the possibility that Aryeh Deri will apply to President Isaac Herzog and ask for a pardon so that he can be part of the government.
"I don't think Herzog would do such a thing. I don't think there is a reason for a pardon. This is a public figure who was convicted of crimes involving money, corruption. A pardon is usually granted when something happened after the verdict that the judges didn't know about. In this case, the matter was discussed in court, and a sentence was given by agreement, not without consent. How can you grant a pardon when the man agreed to the punishment?" Meridor wondered in an interview with Radio 103FM.
He also commented on the planned reform of the judicial system and said, "In recent years, something very serious has happened that has not happened since the establishment of the state. Until a few years ago, there were loud debates about everything, but not about the judiciary. The essence of democracy is not only that the majority rules, but the limitations on the majority that he cannot harm the individual person, the minority. It has changed, and there is a system of incitement. For example, claims that ‘so and so is being framed.’”
“I know the system well. I think there is no basis for this talk, and it is inconceivable that a person with great public influence is selling to the public this bluff that he was framed, that the judges are leftists, that the state attorney who graduated from yeshiva is a left-winger, that the Attorney General is an extreme leftist, and that the police commissioner, a settler with a kippah on his head, is a leftist," continued Meridor, in a direct attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"In every system, including the legal system which is large and important - there are also flaws. This is the nature of things, but our main role in democracy is to ensure how we protect the individual," he concluded.
Meridor was once considered one of the “moderates” in the Likud Party and was a longtime fixture in it, but was placed in an unrealistic spot on the Likud’s Knesset slate in the 2012 primaries and ultimately left the party.
Shortly after those elections, Meridor said in a television interview that he will be "in no hurry" to vote Likud if the party becomes too "right-wing and extremist" for his tastes, saying the party has been ideologically transformed.