The Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday ordered an additional week’s delay in the public corruption trial of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This follows the postponement of the first three weeks.
The hearing has been adjourned since June 16. Now the testimony of witnesses will be called again to resume on July 12 instead of July 5.
Previously, prosecutors and defense had spent April, May and June presenting in court with extensive evidence from Yeshua’s cellphone, in connection with Case 4000, the Bezek-Walla media bribery case.
Prosecutors allege that Netanyahu used his powers to favor Bezek in telecommunications policy in exchange for favorable media coverage from the Walla news site. Both companies are owned by co-defendant Shaul Elovitch.
However, as previous evidence from Yeshua’s cellphone was widely reported in Case 4000, prosecutors focused on text messages between Yeshua and Netanyahu emissaries, or Shawl and Iris Elovich, and other politicians or third parties. Did not dig deeply into the messages sent to. .
Until the court in mid-June ordered prosecutors to search these text messages and provide new documents to the defense, the state’s position was that such documents were not relevant to the case.
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Conversely, the defense argued that such documents could show that Yeshua and Vala accorded special treatment to a number of politicians who interacted directly with them as CEOs and not just Netanyahu.
He hopes this analogy will debunk any bribery allegations.
Prosecutors argue that it does not help Netanyahu because only he, of all politicians, for four years from 2013–2016 struck a deal with Elovich to systematically influence coverage in Walla and government powers. used to “pay” for this skewed coverage. .
Defense lawyers were mistakenly given some text messages between Yeshua and other politicians by the prosecution. But apparently there is far more material that was not given to them than what the court has ruled is relevant.
The latest contention between defense and prosecutors is that the state is saying that since it is now looking at the material for the first time, the new evidence should not only benefit the defense, but it should also help the prosecution. Should get
On the contrary, the defense has argued that the prosecution is a powerful body in control of the evidence.
The defense has said that if prosecutors have not used this evidence for their case against Netanyahu so far, he may not get “a second bite at the apple”, as the defense has given him new evidence useful to the defense. which the prosecution had earlier stopped.
The solution to the question of whether prosecutors can use new anti-Netanyahu evidence has now been pushed to a later date. But the dispute delayed the transfer of documents to the defense by a week, the return of witnesses delayed by another week.
Although prosecutors suggested that the trial continue on July 5 with a new witness, former Director General of Communications Avi Berger, the defense assured the court that it would not be ready for a new witness so soon.
The General Court will hear again from 21 July to 1 September as part of the summer vacation, and only a few hearings will take place in September because of the High Holy Days and Sukkot.
All this means that the testimony of Jesus probably won’t end before October.
Earlier in June, prosecutors said it never claimed that it had researched Yeshua’s text messages on all other politicians and power-brokers, saying it was not relevant and violated the personal privacy of many people. may infringe.