AG tells court to reject petition demanding Netanyahu recuse himself from office while testifying in criminal trial

Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara tells the High Court of Justice that she believes it should reject a petition calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to recuse himself while he testifies in his corruption trial later this month.

In an opinion filed after Netanyahu issued his own response against the petition earlier today, Baharav Miara writes that it should be rejected, as “the prime minister maintains that in the event of a change in the factual basis whereby his public position does not allow for the trial to be conducted, or if the trial harms his ability to function as prime minister, he will make it clear.”

Netanyahu in his own response to the petition said that it should have been rejected outright, and stated that “the Honorable Court (and of course the attorney general) is not authorized to ‘declare’ incapacity and thus create it, since there is no such ‘declaration’ in law.”

“The examination of incapacity will be made in a factual manner by the office holder himself (or his trustee), based on the simple factual question of whether he is able to fulfill his role or not,” he stated. “That is all.”