The Jerusalem District Court ruled Monday to suspend the evidence level of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial until after the upcoming elections.
Hearings will begin after the 23 March polls and will be held Monday to Wednesday from 9am to 3:30 pm, starting 5 April.
Netanyahu, Israel’s first prime minister to be ousted while in office, was charged last year over allegations that he accepted inappropriate gifts and attempted favors. trade regulation by media moguls in exchange for progressive broadcasting.
He is charged with fraud and breach of trust in three cases, and bribery in one of them, allegations which he denies.
The controversial 71-year-old prime minister dismissed the allegations as “clumsy and silly” ahead of his first court trial in May 2020, and is said to have suffered a witch hunt.
The three-judge panel also criticized Mandelblit and the State Prosecutor after both parties failed to give the court written permission from the attorney general to initiate investigative measures against a sitting prime minister, as agreed by Basic Law: The Judge and Basic Law: The Government – are two land laws similar to the Israeli constitution, and have only given verbal permission for such motions.
After the end of the evidence stage, the judges will consider whether there is justification for disallowing evidence received before Mandelblit gave its consent to the launch of the investigation against Netanyahu.
The judges rejected Netanyahu’s request to dismiss the conviction for the misconduct of the lawyer in two of the cases, known as Case 1000 and Case 4000.
Case 1000 alleges that Netanyahu has received expensive gifts worth up to NIS 1 million from Israeli-American producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer.
The 2000 case was related to conversations between Netanyahu and the publisher of the parent company Ynet, the Yedioth ahronoth Arnon Mozes group on positive media coverage as a reward for Netanyahu’s weakening YediothSheldon Adelson’s main rival is Hayom Israel.
Case 4000 involves an alleged plan to reduce rules for telecoms mogul Shaul Elovitch as a reward for advanced coverage on his Walla! news website.