Israel Attorney General secretly took advice on Netanyahu’s cases from law scholars

Israeli government’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has secretly consulted law experts on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption cases without the knowledge of the Justice Ministry, Haaretz revealed yesterday.

Mandelblit carried out discussions with the legal advisers outside his office, with “academics” prior to filing the indictment against Netanyahu. The law experts were asked to keep the issue secret.

One of the “academics” was told, according to Haaretz, that Mandelblit was planning to indict Netanyahu, but he could not depend on his own team from the Public Prosecution regarding major issues. This expert said he saw his participation in the discussions as a “national mission”.

Two of those consulted refused to take part in the discussions as one of them said that his wife is representing Netanyahu and the other said he offers legal consultations to the prime minister.

“Mandelblit was very cautious as he did not give us any written material and everything was taken verbally,” one of the law experts was reported saying by Haaretz.

READ: Officials in probe into Netanyahu’s corruption case resign

The official asked the experts whether he could classify reports that the Wallah news site published positive stories about Netanyahu and his family in return for services to its publisher as bribery.

Netanyahu is entangled in four political scandals: Case 1000 which involves allegations that the PM and his wife accepted illegal gifts from businessmen; Case 2000 which accuses Netanyahu of attempting to buy favourable newspaper coverage; Case 3000, also known as the “submarine scandal” would have seen Israel purchase naval vessels and submarines from a German firm with millions of shekels allegedly “skimmed” off the top of the deals for personal profit; and Case 4000, in which a close associate of Netanyahu is suspected of providing confidential information to Israel’s largest telecoms company.

Netanyahu’s corruption scandal – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]