Former Hapoalim chairman seeks pardon

Dan Dankner
Dan Dankner

Dan Dankner requested a pardon six months ago, but the request is being revealed only now.

"For any normal person, being convicted of a crime is humiliating, shameful, and very painful. It is even worse for someone who comes from a respectable family and served for many years in key positions among Israel's economic leadership," former Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) chairman Dan Dankner wrote six months ago in his request for a pardon from President Reuven Rivlin. The request is being revealed only now.

The president confirmed receiving the request, but has not yet made a decision about it.

Dankner has been serving a two-year term in Maasiyahu Prison since February 2016, after having been convicted in the Holyland affair. This is Dankner's second prison term, after have served eight months in a previous affair, in which he was convicted of corporate breach of trust under aggravating circumstances of a conflict of interest when serving as chairman of Bank Hapoalim.

"Many personal circumstances"

According to Dankner's petition request, during his previous term in prison, which he served in full, he suffered a stroke, leading to a decline in his medical condition.

Submitted through Advocates Tal Shapira and Ariel Kafri of the Shapira Kafri Bar-Zik & Co. law firm, Dankner's petition states, "Dan Dankner's personal circumstances also constitute a significant reason for accepting the pardon petition. There are many personal circumstances justifying the petition."

The petition states, "The affair in which he was convicted has naturally affected Dankner's economic capabilities. He has lost his assets, and was left penniless and without a means of livelihood even before actually beginning his prison sentence."

The petition continued, "The stain of Dankner's conviction and his stay in prison, while being separated from his family, have affected Dankner, his wife, and his six minor children, and have caused them mental damage."

Precedential offense

On December 29, 2015, the Supreme Court set a precedent in the Holyland trial by convicting Dankner of "incitement to bribery" - something that no one had ever been convicted before. According to Dankner's lawyers, the ruling meant in practice that he was convicted for hiring the services of a lobbyist (Meir Rabin, who was also convicted in the affair) to promote the affairs of Israel Salt Industries, which was owned by the Dankner family.

"Let it be noted that Dankner was not convicted, God forbid, of giving a money bribe. As will be made clear, the offense rested on a precedential legal construction of which no one had ever been convicted before under the circumstances under which Dankner was convicted," the petition argued. "It was the first time in Israel in which a person was put on trial for hiring the services of a lobbyist, and certainly the first case in which a person was convicted for this crime."

According to Dankner, the fact that he was convicted for a precedential crime because he had hired the services of a "wheeler-dealer," which the Court interpreted as a form of incitement to bribe, should be weighed in his favor. Furthermore, Dankner writes that in fact, the conduct for which he was convicted and punished reflected a phenomenon that was common and accepted in public administration in Israel.

Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on January 22, 2017

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017

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