Case involving Israeli PM inciting telecom company Bezeq in exchange for advanced coverage on the popular news site at Walla.
Israeli prosecutors have released an amended lawsuit spelling out detailed allegations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a corruption case in which he is accused of trading favors with a powerful media mogul.
Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, breach of trust and acceptance of bribes in three corruption cases.
One of them alleges that Netanyahu promoted hundreds of millions of dollars worth of rules to the owner of telecom company Bezeq in exchange for advanced coverage on the popular news site at Walla.
In response to a request from Netanyahu’s lawyers for more information, Israeli prosecutors released a letter Sunday claiming that 315 incidents of Walla being asked to cover were made in favor of Netanyahu and his family.
They said there were indications that Netanyahu was personally involved in 150 of those incidents.
He said the requests included giving more time or publicity to positive articles about Netanyahu and his family, changing headlines and reducing or even removing negative stories. -balanced.
It also included a request for negative coverage on Netanyahu’s competitors.
The document listed the 315 suspected incidents, which alleged that there were many requests for flat articles and photos of Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, who hid reports of embarrassment charges and personal information about Netanyahu’s family and trying to embarrass his competitors.
He said Shaul Elovitch, Bezeq’s controlling shareholder at the time, expressed concerns that Netanyahu would not agree to beneficial business contracts for the company if negative articles were published.
Between January 17-19, 2013, for example, Netanyahu’s partner said he persuaded Elovitch to publish stories saying that the wife of Naftali Bennett, the leader of a rival religious party, was working in a non-kosher restaurant.
Several weeks later, Netanyahu, through the same alliance, alleges that he pressured Walla to remove critical articles about a lacy dress his wife had sworn to swear at. into the new parliament and replace it with more favorable reviews.
The site agreed to both requests, he said.
Once again, Elovitch apparently ordered, at Netanyahu’s request, Walla to stop a live broadcast of a rally by Netanyahu’s opponents during the country’s 2015 election campaign.
The Netanyahu trial began last year and is expected to resume next month.
He denies the allegations, saying he was the victim of a witch hunt staged by hostile media, police and prosecutors.