Judges say Netanyahu graft hearings to expand to three days a week
Move covers cases in which premier faces fraud and breach of trust charges, rolling back decision to up current pace of two weekly hearings to four, following defense protest
Judges presiding over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial decided Monday that three hearings will be held weekly starting later this month, as they look to speed up the pace of the premier’s years-long legal saga
The decision half reverses an earlier move announced in late December to increase the pace of hearings from the current two-per-week to four weekly hearings starting in February.
After pushback on the quickened pace from Netanyahu’s team, the court said Monday that three sessions will be held weekly citing “constraints arising from the [Israel-Hamas] war.”
“We will revisit the matter in accordance with [any new] developments,” the judges wrote in the decision.
Netanyahu’s trial was suspended in October along with all other non-urgent cases due to Hamas’s shock October 7 incursion, when some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and seizing over 240 hostages.
Netanyahu is standing trial in three separate cases, including one in which he is accused of bribery. The court has been hearing testimony in that trial, known as Case 4000, since sessions resumed on December 4.
The case involves allegations that Netanyahu handed the Shaul Elovitch-owned Bezeq telecom giant regulatory benefits in exchange for editorial intervention in the Walla news outlet, also owned by Elovitch.
Monday’s decision covers plans to resume hearings in the two other cases, in which he faces only the lesser charges of fraud and breach of trust. The cases, known as 1000 and 2000, concern gifts the prime minister allegedly received from billionaire benefactors, and allegations he tried to obtain positive media coverage in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper in exchange for curtailing its competitors.
Plans announced in December to add hearings for the two cases alongside Case 4000 were protested by Netanyahu attorney Amit Hadad, who said managing the war left the premier without the time to get ready for the additional sessions and expected testimony from key witnesses.
“In the current situation, in the middle of the… war, there is no possibility of having the necessary contact with the prime minister to prepare for the questioning of the expected witnesses,” he said in his request, which was eventually accepted.
Netanyahu’s trial began in 2020 and, as things stand, the proceedings, including potential appeals, have been seen as unlikely to end before 2028-2029.
The trial has faced criticism over the slow pace of proceedings.
In late June, it was reported that the judges were pushing for the sides to consider a plea bargain, noting that the bribery charge against the premier would be difficult to prove.
Netanyahu denies wrongdoing and claims that the charges were fabricated in a witch hunt led by the police and state prosecution.
Jeremy Sharon and Michael Bachner contributed to this report.
