Netanyahu trial: No changes to charges after dispute about indictment framing
The court ruled on challenges first made by the defense at a December 18 Netanyahu testimony hearing.
There will be no changes to the Case 4000 charges against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Jerusalem District Court ruled on Thursday, after a dispute about the indictment’s framing and phrasing of the prime minister’s involvement and awareness of elements in an alleged media bribery scheme.The court ruled on challenges first made by the defense at a December 18 Netanyahu testimony hearing, in which defense attorney Amit Haddad argued that the indictment did not adequately attribute how Netanyahu was aware or involved in demands for changes of media coverage made to Walla as part of a supposed deal with co-defendant and then-Walla owner Shaul Elovitch.Hadad had said there were 82 indictment annex items about Netanyahu news coverage in which direct involvement from the prime minister was not detailed and another 59 requests in which it was not explicitly detailed how he was involved in requests through intermediaries.While the defense argued that the 82 items referred to internal actions and decisions within Walla, the judges noted that the indictment had indeed laid out a sufficient thesis about how these incidents were related to Netanyahu’s alleged actions.The prosecution had clarified at a December 23 hearing that it had never claimed that Netanyahu knew of the specifics of each Walla item but that the indictment was detailing actions under an agreed-upon framework with Elovitch in return for aid in advancing the co-defendant’s business interests.
Netanyahu testimony delayed
The judges emphasized that the ruling only concerned the framework of the hearings based on the indictment’s charges and didn’t touch on the factual or evidentiary aspects of the disputed items and case.The ruling came as Netanyahu was still recovering from a December 28 prostate surgery, which had delayed his testimony. Before the procedure, Netanyahu had also been unable to attend a December 25 hearing due to his duties as prime minister.A hearing was instead held in Jerusalem on matters such as the dispute about the indictment’s framing, as well as how to proceed with Netanyahu’s testimony with all 315 items in the indictment.
Jerusalem Post Store
`; document.getElementById("linkPremium").innerHTML = cont; var divWithLink = document.getElementById("premium-link"); if (divWithLink !== null && divWithLink !== 'undefined') { divWithLink.style.border = "solid 1px #cb0f3e"; divWithLink.style.textAlign = "center"; divWithLink.style.marginBottom = "15px"; divWithLink.style.marginTop = "15px"; divWithLink.style.width = "100%"; divWithLink.style.backgroundColor = "#122952"; divWithLink.style.color = "#ffffff"; divWithLink.style.lineHeight = "1.5"; } } (function (v, i) { });