Court drops some charges against Elovitch, clears other officials in Bezeq affair

The Tel Aviv District Court said on Wednesday it was dropping some of the charges against former Bezeq officials in the case that eventually led to a major piece of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial.

Judge Michal Agmon-Gonen ruled that the indictment in the Bezeq affair case included several accusations that did not actually constitute a crime, Channel 12 reported.

Some of the accusations against Shaul Elovitch, the then-controlling shareholder of Bezeq, the country’s largest telecommunications firm, were dropped, while Linor Yochelman, then-company secretary; Amikam Shorer, then-vice chairman of the company and Elovitch’s righthand man; and Or, Elovitch’s son, were completely cleared of all charges in the case.

According to the original indictment, Yochelman had provided Shorer and Elovitch and his wife information, protocols and updates from independent Bezeq committees relating to the potential merger with the YES satellite TV provider, which the prosecution has argued was secret information that was not meant to reach them.

In her ruling, Agmon-Gonen said: “The only claim presented in the indictment in this regard was that the company’s board had determined that shareholders and the professional committees remain compartmentalized from one another…

“This decision, even if proven, is not enough to determine that the committee was notified about this prohibition or anything about the secret nature of its discussions.”

According to Channel 12, the judge had examined previous cases before reaching her decision and found that similar charges that led to criminal convictions in the past were much more serious.

The prosecution disagreed with Agmon-Gonen’s ruling, saying that it believes that the accusations regarding the defendants’ conduct and the independent committees “detail a chain of events of clear criminal fraud” and that “criminal enforcement under such circumstances is justifiable in order to protect the public of investors.”

“We will study the decision and consider our next steps,” prosecutors said.

Elovitch and other former Bezeq officials are still facing other charges in this case relating to alleged fraud in the Bezeq-YES merger deal, which Elovitch was allegedly seeking Netanyahu’s okay for.

This ruling is not expected to have a legal effect on the related part of the Netanyahu trial, known as Case 4000.

Case 4000 is considered the most serious of the three cases against the former prime minister. Netanyahu is alleged to have advanced regulatory decisions as communications minister and prime minister that immensely benefited Elovitch, despite opposition from Communication Ministry officials. In exchange, he was allegedly given what amounted to editorial control over Elovitch’s Walla news site.

Elovitch and his wife Iris have been charged with bribery in the case. They deny wrongdoing.

Netanyahu is also on trial in two other corruption cases, facing charges of fraud and breach of trust in Case 1000 and in Case 2000. He has claimed all the charges were fabricated in a political coup led by the police and state prosecution.