AG: Supreme Court will decide if Netanyahu must resign after indictment

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit says the High Court of Justice will have to determine whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would need to resign if an indictment is filed in his corruption cases.

Speaking to lawmakers in the Knesset State Control Committee, Mandelblit says, “When it comes to a minister, there’s a clear ruling from the Supreme Court that they have to resign if an indictment is filed. As for a prime minister, that’s a complex question and will certainly reach the High Court, which will rule on this issue too.”

Police submitted their final recommendations last week, in the last of the three major corruption probes into Netanyahu’s affairs. Mandelblit is expected to make the final decision on filing an indictment in all three cases in the coming months. He has said he has not yet decided whether the prime minister will be indicted.

Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing in all three cases and insisted he will not resign his post even if an indictment is filed against him.

Regular ministers can be appointed and fired at will, but a prime minister has a special status in Israel’s basic laws that lay out the structure of government: he is selected by the president, is the only member of the cabinet who must be an elected MK, and bears special responsibility and ultimate authority for numerous key functions and powers given to the government by law. That makes his resignation in the case of an indictment a far more difficult legal question, touching on the authority of multiple branches of government.