Israel's President has invited lawyers for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and prosecutors to his residence for talks, his office said, as he weighs a pardon request in the premier’s ongoing corruption trials.
President Isaac Herzog "believes that before he exercises his authority in relation to the request submitted concerning the prime minister, every effort should be made to hold discussions between the parties to reach understandings," his legal adviser Michal Tsuk-Shafir wrote in a letter.
Netanyahu has long denounced the proceedings against him, which began in 2019.
He is Israel's first sitting prime minister to stand trial for corruption, facing charges in two cases of negotiating favourable media coverage.
A third case accuses him of accepting more than $260,000 in luxury gifts from billionaires in exchange for political favours.
A fourth corruption charge has been dismissed.
Pardon talks
The invitation was addressed to Netanyahu's lawyer Amit Haddad, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and state prosecutor Amit Aisman.
Herzog's office said the talks would constitute "only a preliminary step before the president considers exercising the pardon authority."
Netanyahu's trial resumed two weeks ago after emergency restrictions imposed during the war with Iran were lifted.
