Archive photo: Yoni Rickner
The hearing will take place in the presence of the defendants, and as a result all the deputies to the Jerusalem District Court will be closed as early as this morning. Around the court and inside the building itself, the prime minister’s security guards, court security guards, as well as overt and covert police forces will be deployed.
Multiple media teams from the country and the world will be in charge of the hall, but due to the corona restrictions only two seats have been reserved for reporters in the hall itself. The rest will be forced to review the trial from another room, where the trial will be broadcast in a closed circuit. It is not clear whether Netanyahu will carry things out and use the stage to do so.
Due to the spread of the corona: Netanyahu is calling on his supporters not to go to court
Referring to the debate itself, the Prime Minister said: “Everyone already sees that the hunting campaign against me is crumbling, everyone understands that this is a transparent attempt to overthrow a powerful prime minister from the right and thus make a left-wing government led by Lapid. “Because of the persecution of the right, we will win even bigger.”
This is a hearing in response to the indictment in which the defendants have to say whether they plead guilty or not. In this case the defendants have already announced that they are denying guilt. The hearing is supposed to be technical and short, but the additional part of the hearing will deal with the preliminary allegations submitted by Netanyahu’s defense attorneys, and therefore it may be lengthened.
Netanyahu’s defense team requested that an oral hearing be held on the applications relating to Appendix A to the indictment and the ombudsman’s approval for his investigation. Netanyahu), in which the parties will be able to orally complete the arguments submitted in writing. “
The defense team claims that some of the allegations in the amended indictment were not presented to Netanyahu during the investigation and should therefore be deleted from the indictment. The State Attorney’s Office, on the other hand, argues that these are idle allegations whose purpose is to attract time. The prosecution expressed its position that at the stage of presenting the evidence and clarifying the allegations, the truth will be clarified and the defense will be given the opportunity to investigate the prosecution witnesses. At this point, naturally, start soon.
Meanwhile, Knesset Speaker Levin’s call in an interview with Israel Today to postpone the evidentiary phase of the trial until after the election provoked a storm in the political system. Blue and White were accused: Out of this problematic government. “