Attorney General Aharon Barak has asked for the opinion of various government agencies regarding the possibility of granting a general pardon to prisoners on the occasion of Israel’s 30th anniversary celebrations. Barak wants to study the effects a massive release of prisoners may have.
The last general pardon was granted 10 years ago, after the Six-Day War. It was limited then to prisoners whose terms were less than 10 years, who were not convicted for crimes committed under the Nazi regime, who were not security prisoners, who were not sentenced for repeating a crime and those who were not sentenced for economic crimes exceeding IL 100,000. A post-mortem study of their release showed that many of those pardoned in 1967 eventually returned to jail.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
