A watchdog group has written to Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, urging him to adopt the professional opinion of the Justice Ministry’s pardons department and recommend that President Isaac Herzog not issue a pardon for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The letter from the liberally inclined Movement for Quality Government in Israel comes following indications from Eliyahu that he will recommend that Herzog issue a pardon, despite the pardons department determining that Netanyahu’s request for one does not meet the relevant criteria.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin delegated his authorities over the pardon issue to Eliyahu several weeks ago, due to a possible conflict of interest Levin had in the matter.

“A pardon for the prime minister, while the criminal process is ongoing, and in opposition to professional officials, would severely harm the rule of law and the principle of the separation of powers,” the Movement for Quality Government told Eliyahu in its letter on Sunday.

Netanyahu filed his pardon request last November, even though his trial on corruption charges in three different cases has yet to conclude.

He is standing trial on one charge of bribery, as well as three charges of fraud and breach of trust, after being indicted in 2020.

US President Donald Trump has heavily pressured Herzog to grant Netanyahu’s request, speaking out harshly against the Israeli president for failing to accede to his repeated demands that he issue a pardon.

Pardon requests before a conviction are both highly unusual and rare, but there is precedent for such pardons in certain circumstances, and the issue has come before the High Court.

In 1986, the court determined, in what has become known as the Barzilai ruling, that........

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