Netanyahu asks for shorter and fewer court appearances in corruption trial

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked yesterday to reduce the number of days and the duration of his appearances before Tel Aviv District Court in his trial on corruption charges. He is due to attend in court from next Tuesday to defend himself against several charges including bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

According to Israel’s Channel 12, the prime minister is asking if he can testify twice a week, instead of three times as decided by the judiciary. “In addition, Netanyahu is requesting that each session be shortened to 5 hours instead of 6 hours, starting at 10:00 and ending at 15:00 local time, instead of the scheduled time between 9:00 and 15:00.”

Netanyahu’s defence team justified this by arguing, “He works almost every day until late at night, whether due to cabinet meetings, security consultations, or the need to communicate with various entities abroad.”

The court has yet to decide on Netanyahu’s request.

Channel 12 reported that court judges had already approved Netanyahu’s request to relocate his trial from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv for security reasons, noting that the sessions will be held in a “secret underground courtroom.”

He was initially scheduled to appear in court last Sunday, but the court agreed to his request to postpone his appearance until next Tuesday, due to his busy schedule.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority said that media outlets had submitted a request to the court to broadcast Netanyahu’s testimony live, but the court rejected the request.

The corruption cases in which he is indicted are known as Cases 1000, 2000 and 4000, with former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit filing an indictment against Netanyahu in late November 2019.

Case 1000 involves Netanyahu and members of his family receiving expensive gifts from wealthy businessmen, in exchange for favours and assistance to these individuals in various fields.

Case 2000 involves accusations that Netanyahu agreed with Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper publisher, Arnon Mozes, to obtain positive media coverage in exchange for weakening a rival.

Case 4000 is considered the most serious, in which Netanyahu advanced regulatory decisions that benefited Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder in the Bezeq telecom giant, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, in exchange for positive coverage from the company’s Walla news site.

Netanyahu’s trial in these cases began in 2020 and is ongoing. He denies all the charges against him, calling them a political campaign aimed at ousting him.

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