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Jan. 3, 2021
Two years after the launch of a program to expunge the criminal records of Israelis who came from Ethiopia, only 23 have been pardoned, out of 115 applications that were submitted to the Ministry of Justice.
According to figures released this week by the ministry’s unit that deals with pardons, eight other applications are still under review, waiting for a decision. The Ministry of Justice and organizations helping people from Ethiopia say that the number of applications is lower than expected, describing the plan as a failure.
“I walk around with a sense of frustration over this plan, since with all the goodwill, it hasn’t really been a success,” attorney Nohi Politis, the head of the pardon-reviewing unit, told Haaretz.