Premier Menachem Begin has proposed that the government mark the 15th anniversary of the liberation of Jerusalem this year by an amnesty for prisoners in jail. At the weekly Cabinet meeting he asked Justice Minister Moshe Nissim and Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir to study the idea and report back to the Cabinet next Sunday.
In the past, there were amnesties in the form of reduction of sentences for some crimes — to mark Israel’s Independence Day and on certain other major national occasions. The amnesties are usually in the form of Presidential pardons or reductions, but on two past occasions–one in the 1950’s and one immediately after the Six-Day War — they took the form of special Knesset laws introduced by the incumbent government.
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