Attorney general said to rule out non-binding mediation offer in Netanyahu trial
No official decision has been submitted to the court yet; prosecution sources say if PM wants talks he can propose a plea deal, no need for external judge to be involved
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has decided that she is not interested in a non-binding mediation process in the corruption trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Kan public broadcaster reported Thursday, citing sources close to the AG.
However, the Justice Ministry dismissed the report as “speculation,” saying that no decision has been reached on the matter.
During recent discussions between the prosecution and defense lawyers involved in the trial, the lawyers were informed that there was no need for a mediation process and that the case should proceed, the report said.
“If Prime Minister Netanyahu is interested in a plea deal, he can approach the attorney general directly with a proposal. There is no need for the mediation of a judge,” the lawyers were reportedly informed.
The report stressed that the prosecution has yet to inform the court of its stance.
Last month one of the three judges in the trial asked the state prosecution and the defense teams to consider a non-binding “criminal mediation” process, in part because the proceedings are proving so protracted.
The trial began three years ago and, as things stand, the proceedings, including potential appeals, are seen as unlikely to end before 2028-2029.
On Sunday Kan reported that prosecutors and defense attorneys reached an agreement to shrink the list of witnesses who are slated to testify.
According to the report, more than 60 witnesses will be cut from the list, which is expected to lead to the prosecution’s arguments wrapping up in a year, and Netanyahu himself taking the stand within 18 months.
Regarding the mediation, a Channel 12 report last month said that Jacques Chen, a lawyer for one of Netanyahu’s fellow defendants, the former Bezeq controlling shareholder Shaul Elovitch, suggested mediation for all defendants during a discussion before Judge Oded Shaham.
Lawyers for Netanyahu, who is on trial in three cases — facing one count of bribery and three counts of fraud and breach of trust — “did not rule out the idea,” the report said, and Shaham asked the state to weigh it.
Chen raised the “surprising suggestion” of mediation when Shaham was holding behind-closed-doors discussions with the sides on trying to reduce the lengthy witness lists in the trial.
Mediation is generally held before a serving judge (not one of the judges in the trial), who does not hear witnesses, and does not restart the trial, the report noted. Rather, the judge tries to work toward what amounts to a potential plea bargain.
For instance, the report said, the judge could cancel the bribery charge against Netanyahu and convict him of fraud and breach of trust — a potential resolution reportedly considered when former attorney general Avichai Mandelblit held plea bargain contacts with Netanyahu’s lawyers in late 2021 to early 2022.
The mediator can also come up with “creative suggestions,” the report said, including on the matter of “moral turpitude” attached to a conviction, which could potentially bar Netanyahu from public office.
Mandelblit and Netanyahu’s lawyers engaged in several weeks of talks toward a potential plea deal, during a period when Netanyahu was not in office.
While the potential for such an agreement had much of the nation on the edge of its seat, the negotiations eventually fell apart shortly before Mandelblit left office and was replaced by Baharav-Miara.
According to unconfirmed reports of the plea deal negotiations, Mandelblit was demanding that any plea deal with Netanyahu include a clause of “moral turpitude” — which would bar Netanyahu from public office for seven years. Some reports said that a period of just two years was also discussed in the plea bargain, and that Mandelblit backtracked after temporarily agreeing to this. In addition, the reports at the time said that other charges would be significantly lowered in two of the cases against the former premier, and dismissed in the third.
But in a statement following the collapse of the talks, Netanyahu said he would not agree to acknowledge “moral turpitude” as part of a potential plea bargain, and said he had no intention of leaving politics.
