Israel: Netanyahu requests postponement of his corruption trial

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday formally requested the postponement of his corruption trial for 45 days, local media reported.

Netanyahu’s trial on three corruption cases is set for 17 March; his advocates claim they have not received all the materials related to the cases.

In a statement issued on Sunday and reported by the Times of Israel, chief of Netanyahu’s advocate team, Amit Hadad, said: “A few months ago, an indictment was filed against the prime minister, yet until now we have not received the material.”

Hadad added: “Therefore, we applied to the court with a technical request to delay the date of the hearing, so that we can first receive the investigation material — and only afterwards appear in court.”

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A report by Haaretz noted that the state prosecutors prepared the materials, but Netanyahu’s advocates are demanding they be scanned and digitised.

The prosecutors rejected Netanyahu’s request to delay the trial, but said that he did not need to attend the opening hearing.