Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Israeli President Isaac Herzog held talks over the past few weeks regarding pardoning or commuting the sentences of Jewish security prisoners in light of the hostage deal, which saw the release of hundreds of Palestinian Arab terrorists.
Yedioth Aharonoth reported that Levin presented an official request to Herzog that he consider pardoning or commuting the sentence of approximately six Jewish prisoners who were convicted of severe nationalist crimes. According to Levin, the move would create a balance to the release of Arab terrorists.
There is no danger that released Jewish prisoners will return to nationalist crimes, while released Arab terrorists are encouraged by their society to engage once again in terror.
According to the report, the President is considering commuting the sentence of Ami Popper, who was convicted of killing seven Arabs in Rishon Lezion in 1990 and was sentenced to life in prison.
This being said, Herzog objected to some of the names that Levin proposed and is only willing to discuss Popper and an additional prisoner, and in any case, would only commute their sentence and not issue a full pardon.