Last update - 01:44 29/01/2008
President asked to pardon Omri Sharon
By Yuval Yoaz
Top PR man Ran Rahav asked President Shimon Peres to pardon former MK Omri Sharon yesterday, hours after the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal Sharon had filed against his sentence.
Sharon was convicted in a plea bargain of violating campaign finance laws, falsifying corporate documents and perjury in connection with the 1999 primary campaign in which his father, former prime minister Ariel Sharon, was elected head of the Likud Party. The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court sentenced him in February 2006 to nine months in prison, but following an appeal, the Tel Aviv District Court later cut the sentence to seven months in jail plus a NIS 300,000 fine.
Now that the Supreme Court has declined to allow him a second appeal, Sharon is due to start serving his sentence in another month.
In an appeal to Peres, Rahav urged that Sharon be pardoned because he is caring for his father - who has been in a coma since suffering a stroke two years ago - "24 hours a day, with endless devotion. I believe you should exercise mercy in this case and not add to Sharon's suffering, as there is no doubt that he has already been punished," Rahav wrote.